Hey there! Tonight, on March 24-25, the moon is going to have a penumbral lunar eclipse. During the eclipse, the moon will be partially shaded in Earth's shadow.
Now, looking ahead to the next couple of weeks, there are two eclipses to get excited about. The big one is the Great North American Eclipse on April 8. It's going to be quite a spectacle, stretching from Mexico's Pacific coast to Texas, across parts of the United States and Atlantic Canada, and ending over the north Atlantic Ocean.
But before we get to that total solar eclipse, there's a lunar eclipse happening during the overnight hours of March 24-25. It's like a prelude to the grand event in April. This lunar eclipse is going to involve the Worm Moon, which is the last full moon before the solar eclipse. It'll slip into Earth's outer shadow, also known as the penumbra.
The best place to observe this lunar eclipse will be in North and South America. It's going to be high in the sky during the transition from March 24 to March 25. The moon will take around 4 hours and 40 minutes to glide across the pale outer fringe of Earth's shadow, the penumbra, without reaching the darker umbra.
Lunar and solar eclipses are connected phenomena. A solar eclipse can only happen when the moon is at a node of its orbit, which are the points where the moon's path in the sky crosses the sun's path (known as the ecliptic).
During the solar eclipse on April 8, the moon will cross the ecliptic from south to north. But about half an orbit earlier, on March 24-25, the moon will cross the opposite node from north to south and encounter Earth's shadow. This period, from March 16 to April 23, is called an "eclipse season" and shows us how these seasons work.
In this particular eclipse, the moon will go deep into the penumbra. At the moment of the deepest phase or greatest eclipse (7:12 UT), the penumbra will cover 95.8% of the lunar disk. Just to give you an idea, the lowermost part of the moon will be about 282 miles (453 km) away from the unseen edge of Earth's umbra.
Penumbral eclipses are pretty subtle events and can be hard to notice because of their pale shadow. The first contact with the penumbral shadow is almost impossible to detect. However, a little over an hour later, people with really sharp eyes might be able to see a slight shading on the moon's lower left side.
Around half an hour before and after the time of maximum eclipse, at least 70% of the moon's diameter will be immersed in the shadow. This will result in a noticeable reduction of light and give the moon a "smudged" or "soiled" appearance. You should be able to see a slight grayness on the lower part of the moon quite clearly.
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