Total lunar eclipse in Maryland to turn moon red this week: 5 things to know

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman, The Baltimore Sun on Mar 11, 2025

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As if there’s not already enough going on to disturb your sleep, here’s another nighttime distraction to keep you from counting sheep: A blood red moon rises over Maryland later this week. And you won’t want to miss it.

A lunar eclipse takes place when Earth lines up between the sun and a full moon. The sun casts the planet’s shadow onto the surface of moon, turning it a reddish orange color.

What will happen beginning Thursday night is a total lunar eclipse, meaning the entire moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, an area known as the umbra. The last time this was visible from Maryland was in November 2022.

Here are five things to know about this week’s total lunar eclipse.

You’ll need to stay up late Thursday night.

The lunar eclipse is predicted to be visible over Maryland starting around 11:57 p.m. Thursday, according to NASA. A partial eclipse — it appears as if the moon has a bite taken out of it — will commence about 1:09 a.m. Totality will begin at 2:26 a.m. as the moon begins to glow a coppery red and will end around 3:31 a.m. The moon will exit the Earth’s umbra as the color fades away, and the eclipse will end by 6 a.m. Friday.

The period of totality will be longer than usual.

Expect to be able to observe the blood-red moon for over an hour, about 65 minutes. Take a moment to look west to observe Jupiter and Mars. According to NASA, constellations could also be more apparent to the eye when the moon is in shadow. The moon “will be in the constellation Leo, under the lion’s hind paw, at the beginning of the eclipse; soon afterward, it will cross into the constellation Virgo,” NASA said.

You won’t be watching alone.

More than a billion people live in the locations where the blood red moon will be visible this week, including in Siberia, West Africa, New Zealand and the majority of North America.

The weather might not cooperate.

According to the National Weather Service, Thursday overnight in the Baltimore region looks party cloudy with a temperature low in the mid-40s. But there’s a warm front that is expected to move into the area at the end of the week that could increase cloudiness and up chances of a shower. Still, according to NASA, “The more dust or clouds in Earth’s atmosphere during the eclipse, the redder the Moon appears.”

If you miss it, you could still see it one day.

The next total lunar eclipse happens Sept. 7 but will be visible only in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. You’ll have to wait until March 3, 2026, for another shot at viewing from the Americas, but not all of the eclipse will be visible over the continental U.S. as it will be this week. After that, there won’t be another chance at seeing a total lunar eclipse in the area until 2029.

If you want to know more details about the total lunar eclipse, go to science.nasa.gov.

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