March 2025 says goodbye to Saturn, welcomes a total lunar eclipse, and continues hanging out with the rest of the planets. Hi everybody, I’m Rob Webb, your Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to normies and nerds, with little time to spare. We’ll start by talking about this month’s big events, then highlight the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so you can plan ahead better than me.  

 

14th - Total Lunar Eclipse

1:09am EST – Partial Eclipse Begins – Just look South to find the Full Moon, and watch as the Earth’s shadow appears to nibble on the Moon from left to right. This phase will last about an hour. (You might hear that the penumbral portion of the eclipse starts before this.  While true, it is essentially undetectable with the naked eye.)

2:26am EST – Totality Begins – Now the umbra of the Earth’s shadow is completely engulfing the Moon, and only the light from all the sunrises and sunsets on Earth are illuminating our orbital partner’s surface, making it appear anywhere from dark yellow to orange to red to brown.  This phase will last a little over an hour, with maximum eclipse right before 3am.

3:32am EST – Totality ends, Partiality begins again – now the shadow leaves the Moon, starting to expose its surface from the right to left.

4:48am EST – Partial Eclipse Ends

Other things to look for

• As the Moon gets darker, more and more stars will be visible
• The Moon is right between Leo and Virgo - Virgo is usually tough to find, so take advantage of the darkened Moon.

 

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