Here's How to Watch the Rare Total Lunar Eclipse This Week
Get ready, night owls.
The first total lunar eclipse, also known as the Blood Worm Moon, will fully light up the sky soon—and fortunately, viewers can watch the phenomenon happen in real time.
This year's celestial event won't be a quick one, so don't fill your schedule too much. The eclipse, which happens when the moon glows in a red-orange hue after passing by the darkest part of Earth's shadow, will start in the late hours of March 13 and reach its peak color on March 14, per NASA.
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Its totality will last for about 66 minutes, and will visibly shine across the Western Hemisphere, including North America, South America, Europe and Africa. (Hawaii and some parts of Alaska will miss the beginning of the penumbral phase—when the moon starts entering the Earth's outer shadow—but will be able to witness the rest of the event, according to Space.com.)
Unlike the solar eclipse, which has to be viewed with special glasses to keep the eyes safe, this new celestial moment can be seen with the naked eye—or through binoculars, if viewers want a closer look. NASA recommends observing the eclipse in a dark spot away from bright lights.
For those that can't watch the blood moon in-person, Space.com noted that several different livestreams will catch the event in full. These various options are necessary, considering this lunar eclipse is special. In fact, it'll mark the first time in three years since the moon glimmered in its scarce hue in 2022, and the next one won't appear again until 2026.
The Blood Worm isn't the last rare occasion to grace the sky, as a new moon was pulled into the Earth's orbit last September. At the time, the phenomenon—known as an asteroid named 2024 PT5—was first spotted by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) initiative in early August, who calculated the floating rock's journey would last nearly two months.
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