Science & Nature
How and When to See the Lunar Eclipse Tonight in Chicago
(Video produced by Nicole Cardos)
It was around this time last year when coverage of 2024’s North American solar eclipse began reaching fever pitch. “Path of totality” was on everyone’s tongues, small towns were bracing for an influx of astro-tourists, and we all became experts on the ISO safety standard for solar viewers.
Now here we are, mere days away from a total lunar eclipse — also in North America — and the chatter level has scarcely risen to a whisper. What gives?
For starters, lunar eclipses are far more common than their solar counterparts. Chicagoans witnessed a total eclipse of the moon in November 2022, and we’ll get another chance in March 2026. Familiarity, in this case, apparently breeds been there, done that indifference.
But there’s a major plot twist to this week’s eclipse, one that Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at Adler Planetarium, suspects will catch most people by surprise.
“I bet people, for the most part, don’t realize that Blue Ghost is going to be operating during the lunar eclipse,” Nichols said.
Blue Ghost is a lunar lander built by the company Firefly Aerospace in partnership with NASA. The lander successfully touched down on the moon last week and will witness the eclipse from the opposite perspective of our position on Earth. For Blue Ghost, the lunar eclipse will play out like a solar eclipse, with the Earth blocking the sun.
A lunar sunrise, captured by the Blue Ghost lander. (NASA / X)
“I am so excited to see these pictures (from Blue Ghost). I cannot tell you how excited I am,” Nichols said. “I just want to know, does the surface of the moon look different? Does it just look darker, does it look redder? Can you see the corona? How well? There’s so many questions I have about this — I cannot wait for this to happen.”
To her knowledge, these will be the first high-resolution photographs of a lunar eclipse taken from the moon. “Even if imagery has been taken before, there’s some great cameras on the Blue Ghost lander,” Nichols said.
Surveyor III, in 1967, captured this low-res image of a lunar eclipse from the perspective of the moon. (NASA)
The lone prior eclipse images captured from the moon — of which there are just two — were provided by the Surveyor III lunar lander during a lunar eclipse in 1967, and while these photos have historic value, they’re visually rudimentary.
Blue Ghost’s presence will also allow scientists to observe phenomena like the effect of an eclipse on temperature, the dust environment and the local magnetic field.
“It’s all a fascinating experiment,” said Nichols, who welcomes this new era of lunar exploration.
Interest in moon landings may have waned among the general public after NASA’s third or fourth trip, but scientists had barely scratched the surface of the moon’s secrets when manned missions came to an end in 1972.
“To say that we know everything about the moon because we’ve landed in a small handful of locations … try to do that with the Earth. You can’t do it. You can’t do the same with the moon either,” Nichols said.
“There’s still so much we don’t know and so much more we can add to the library of information that we have,” she continued. “The best way to do it is to get landers on the grand, boots on the ground, get that direct information with our instruments that are right there on the surface.”
So now is your interest piqued in the upcoming eclipse? Here’s what you need to know.
Remind me again, what is a lunar eclipse?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align in a way that the moon passes into Earth’s shadow — in other words, the Earth comes directly between the moon and the sun. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra.
During a solar eclipse, the lineup is: sun, moon, earth.
A total lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes into the earth’s full shadow, which completely blocks light from the sun. (SiberianArt / iStock)
Will it be visible in Chicago?
Yes. The total eclipse will be visible in most of the western hemisphere, including the entire continental U.S.
As always, cloud cover could spoil the show, but unlike a lot of celestial events, light pollution in Chicago’s urban skies won’t be an issue.
“The moon is bright, no matter what,” Nichols said.
When is the eclipse?
The main event starts shortly after midnight in Chicago, in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, March 14 (it will start earlier in other time zones, which is why the date is March 13-14). Here’s the timeline:
— 12:09 a.m. Friday, March 14, the moon begins entering the darkest part of Earth’s shadow (umbra). During this partial eclipse phase, it will look like a bite is being taken out of the moon.
— 1:26 a.m., full eclipse begins, as the moon is totally within shadow. Totality reaches its peak at 1:58 a.m.
— 2:31 a.m., full eclipse ends, and the process begins reversing, with the moon gradually emerging from shadow.
— 3:47 a.m., the partial eclipse ends as the moon exits Earth’s umbra.
The eclipse event continues until roughly 5 a.m. — the penumbral phase, in lighter shadow — but it won’t be noticeable. Check out NASA’s video below of the different phases (all times listed in the video are UTC or Coordinated Universal Time).
Nichols will be part of an Adler team livestreaming the eclipse from the campus of Southern Illinois University.
What’s this I’m hearing about a “blood moon”?
Total lunar eclipses are sometimes called blood moons because during totality, the moon can appear red — “can” being the operative word.
Why? Any sunlight that’s not blocked by our planet is filtered through Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the lunar surface. Blue light scatters, leaving the red end of the spectrum.
The intensity of that color depends on what’s going on in the atmosphere — how clear it is, how dusty or full of ash, Nichols said.
“The color that we get is not always red. It’s sometimes gray. It’s sometimes orange,” she said. “What will we get this time? We’ll find out when we see it.”
Do I need special equipment?
Nope. Go ahead and stare straight at the eclipse with the naked eye — just like you don’t use safety lenses to look at the moon any other time, Nichols said.
“That’s why I love lunar eclipses, because they’re even more accessible than solar eclipses,” she said.
Totality occurs over a wider geography and lasts much longer; no special gear is required.
“You literally need no other equipment in order to see a lunar eclipse,” Nichols said. “You can just look at it with your eyes and it’s wonderful.”
Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices” to discuss the lunar eclipse is Joe Guzman, the Chicago Astronomer. (Produced by Abena Bediako)
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | [email protected]
