A blood moon lunar eclipse is coming

2025 is proving to be a year of heavenly highlights for those gazing skywards at night.

Mars made its presence felt in January appearing bigger and brighter in the sky because it was in “opposition”.

Then last month saw a rare planetary parade of all seven planets in our solar system.

Now March brings another delight for astronomers and stargazers alike – a blood moon lunar eclipse.

What is a blood moon?

A blood moon appears in the sky during a lunar eclipse, when its colour seems to change from its usual white to a dark reddish colour.

The moon does not actually generate any of its own light it. Like Earth, it gets its light from the sun.

It illuminates our night sky because its surface is reflecting that sunlight.

To us on Earth, that light from the sun looks white. But it is actually made up of a spectrum of different colours of light which each have different physical properties.

In the mix is blue light, which has shorter wavelengths and scatters relatively easily as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere.

And there is a reddish light, which has longer wavelengths and travels directly through our atmosphere.

Normally the moon appears to be giving off a white light because its surface is reflecting the full spectrum of light which has come directly from the Sun without favouring one particular wavelength.

Our brains process the light we see reflected as white.

However, during a lunar eclipse the sunlight has had to filter through the Earth’s atmosphere because our planet is blocking or partially blocking the light from the Sun reaching the moon.

This sunlight is then bent backwards towards the moon in a process called refraction, the blue light element scatters but the red light element continues to travel through.

When this strikes the surface of the Moon, it reflects back giving off a reddish hue.

When is the lunar eclipse?

This month there will be partial lunar eclipse visible in the UK on Friday 14 March.

It will start at 3.57am (GMT) and reach its visible peak at 6.19am before disappearing below the horizon.

An eclipse of the moon (lunar eclipse) occurs when the Earth is situated directly between the sun and the moon. The moon then ends up in Earth’s shadow.

For a total lunar eclipse to happen, the sun, the Earth and the moon must be situated in a straight line.

Then the moon will pass through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – the umbra.

For a partial lunar eclipse, the moon passes through the outer region of Earth’s shadow known as the penumbra and only a section of it passes through the umbra.

It means only a very small section of the Moon will be covered by the umbra at maximum eclipse, so it appears to be a partial eclipse.

During this month’s eclipse, almost all of the Moon will be in Earth’s umbra.

How can I see the lunar eclipse from the UK?

Moon watchers in the UK will need to get to a high point with a clear western view for the best view of the lunar eclipse.

Astronomer Tom Kerss, speaking at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said observers won’t need a telescope to see it but they will need to look west.

He said: “For us here in the UK, the eclipse is going to be in its greatest and its latest stages when it is relatively low in the south west and the west.”

When is the next lunar eclipse visible from the UK?

The next lunar eclipse visible in the UK after March will be in the autumn this year.

This will be a full lunar eclipse on 7 September 2025.

The full eclipse will occur at 7.11pm (BST), when the moon is still below the horizon in the UK.

However, the moon will rise just above horizon in time for UK sky watchers to still catch some of it.

It should be visible from 7.33pm (BST), while still eclipsed.

It will then gradually move out of the Earth’s umbra and penumbra up until just before 10pm.

As the moon will be low on the horizon, the best place to view it will be from a high point with a clear view to the east.

After that, the next opportunity to catch a partial lunar eclipse will be on 28 August 2026.