How to see a total lunar eclipse early Friday morning

Calling all night owls: Early Friday morning, you may just catch a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse across North and South America, even in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa.

If skies are clear, you can watch the moon turn dark, rusty, reddish hues, sometimes called a blood moon. It's the first since the last visible total eclipse of the moon back in November of 2022.

What’s a lunar eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the moon and the sun.

The Earth and the moon have different orbital planes, but the two line up perfectly every six months, says Kelly Beatty, Sky & Telescope's senior editor.

When the lineup is perfect, “The moon is going through the dark shadow of the Earth, which is called the umbra,” Beatty says. “If Earth had no atmosphere, the moon would completely disappear, but a little bit of light goes through the atmosphere, gets leaked into the shadow, and because it's sunset-colored light, it can paint the moon's disk with beautiful copper colors and sometimes bright orange, depending on how much cloud there is.”

During this particular eclipse, the moon passes off-center through the Earth's shadow. The umbra is bigger than the moon itself, so when it passes north, the closest edges of the moon to the outside will appear a little brighter, Beatty says.

What time is the eclipse? 

The total eclipse will last about 66 minutes, Beatty says.

On the East Coast, totality will last from 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Friday morning. On the West Coast, it’s from 11:30 p.m. Thursday night to 12:30 a.m.

Why is this eclipse special? 

“ It's special because, for me, it demonstrates the sort of clockwork regularity of the Earth, moon, solar system, orbital mechanics,” Beatty says. “This is something that's been observed for thousands of years. And Aristotle was the first to realize that the when the moon goes into eclipse, the curved shape of the shadow implies that the Earth has to be spherical, but no one believed him.”

What other celestial events are coming up?

In two weeks, during the new moon, the moon gets in the way again and creates a deep partial eclipse, Beatty says. But this time, it’s only visible in the Northeast.

Click here to learn about the five distinct phases of a lunar eclipse with graphics that illustrate their alignment and timeline.

Wilder Fleming produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.