There will be a total lunar eclipse this week that will turn the Moon red.
Appropriately, the Moon is considered a Blood Moon and will appear the night of March 13 and the morning of March 14, according to NASA.
The lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Moon and Earth align and the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow. When the Moon is in the darkest shadow, it’s called the umbra, making it appear red-orange.
The Moon will enter the Earth’s penumbra or the outer part of the shadow. The Moon will start to dim, but you may not realize it. That will occur at 11:57 p.m. ET on March 13.
The Moon will then start to enter the umbra and the partial eclipse begins. That will happen at 1:09 a.m. ET on March 14.
The total lunar eclipse will happen at 2:26 a.m. ET. To have a perfect view of the phenomenon, you may want to use binoculars or a telescope. If you want to take photos, make sure you’re using a tripod and have a several-second exposure.
The totality ends at 3:31 a.m. ET as the Moon moves out of the umbra with the Moon fully entering the Earth’s penumbra at 4:47 a.m. ET.
By 6 a.m. ET the eclipse will be over, NASA said.
Space.com said that the eclipse that will be seen will be similar to one that Christopher Columbus used to scare indigenous people more than five hundred years ago.
Columbus was on his fourth trans-Atlantic voyage in 1504 and was stranded in Jamaica. The sailor’s crew was starving and he needed to do something. So he looked at astronomical tables and saw there was going to be an eclipse so he told the leaders that his god would blot out the Moon in anger if supplies were not provided. When the Moon turned red, the Arawak people gave Columbus food and help, The Guardian said.
The full Moon this month is also known as the Worm Moon, believed to come from seeing more earthworms as we get closer to spring, the Old Farmer’s Almanac said. It also may date to the 1760s noting the time when worms or beetle larvae emerged from trees, CBS News reported.
The March full Moon also goes by the following names, according to CBS News:
- Eagle Moon
- Goose Moon
- Crow Comes Back Moon
- Sugar Moon
- Wind Strong Moon
- Sore Eyes Moon
The next full Moon will be the Pink Moon which will happen on April 12, USA Today reported.