It will not be as dramatic as a complete photo voltaic eclipse, however there’s one thing equally epic about watching Earth’s shadow regularly engulfing and coloring the moon throughout a complete lunar eclipse. The subsequent whole lunar eclipse — colloquially referred to as a “blood moon” — will happen on Sept. 7-8, 2025, however it will not be one other 177 days till the phenomenon is seen from components of North America, on March 2-3, 2026.
An eclipse of the moon is a worldwide occasion, taking place at a particular time, and solely these on the evening facet of Earth see it. On Sept. 7-8, North America will not be on the evening facet, with prime visibility restricted to Africa, India, China and Australia. Western Europe will get a glimpse of the occasion at moonrise, however principally misses out on the occasion, too. That is a disgrace as a result of the Sept.7-8 whole lunar eclipse will see the lunar floor flip reddish for 82 minutes, simply because it did on March 13-14, 2025, when moongazers in North America had been in prime place for some spectacular photographs.
Nonetheless, precisely one lunar yr — 354 days (12 orbits of the moon round Earth) — later, one other whole lunar eclipse will probably be seen from North America. The subsequent blood moon visible from North America will be overnight on March 2-3, 2026, when the lunar surface will turn reddish for 58 minutes. It will be seen from North America, Australia and East Asia, though the epicenter will be the Pacific Ocean.
It’s a case of the farther west you are in North America, the better view you’ll get. In fact, skywatchers in New York will see only a short totality at the moonset on March 3. Even in the Midwest, totality takes place close to the moonset, with only those west of Kansas seeing totality higher in the sky. That’s important because the moon tends to glow orange when it’s close to the horizon anyway, so the redness of totality loses its impact when it occurs close to the horizon.
Although the West Coast — California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in the U.S., and British Columbia in Canada — will get to see all stages of the eclipse high in the sky, arguably the best places will be those with reliably clear skies. In March, your best chances are the desert southwest (the southern regions of California, Arizona and New Mexico) and Hawaii, according to data from Time and Date.
The March 2-3, 2026 whole lunar eclipse is the third of three in a row inside one lunar yr. Complete lunar eclipses — which at all times happen throughout a full moon — typically arrive in triads, accompanied by at the very least one photo voltaic eclipse two weeks earlier than and/or after. On this case, it is preceded by an annular photo voltaic eclipse brought on by a brand new moon on Feb. 17, 2026, throughout which 96% of the solar’s disk will probably be blocked by the moon for as much as 2 minutes 20 seconds — however solely as seen from Antarctica.
