March 13-14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse: Shadow View

  • Released Thursday, January 30, 2025
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Universal Time (UTC). The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse.

Both movies and high-resolution still images are available for Universal Time (UTC, above) along with Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Daylight Time. Also see the visibility map and Dial-a-Moon for this eclipse.

On March 14, 2025 (the night of March 13), the Moon enters the Earth's shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse, the first since November of 2022. This animation shows the changing appearance of the Moon as it travels into and out of the Earth's shadow, along with times at various stages. Celestial north is up in this imagery, corresponding to the view from mid-northern latitudes. Rotating the images by 180 degrees would create the south-up view for southern hemisphere observers.

The penumbra is the part of the Earth’s shadow where the Sun is only partially covered by the Earth. The umbra is where the Sun is completely hidden. The Moon's appearance isn't affected much by the penumbra. The real action begins when the Moon starts to disappear as it enters the umbra at about 1:09 a.m. EDT. An hour and a half later, entirely within the umbra, the Moon is a ghostly copper color. The totally eclipsed Moon is 10 or more f-stops dimmer than a normal full Moon. This is captured in the animation by simulating an abrupt change of exposure near the start and end of totality. Totality lasts for a little over an hour before the Moon begins to emerge from the central shadow. During the eclipse, the Moon is moving through the constellations Leo and Virgo.

A wide-angle view of the eclipse shows the Moon moving among the stars in the constellations Leo and Virgo.

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse.

Central Daylight Time (CDT). The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse.

Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse.

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse.

General. The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram. This version omits the title and times.

Just the Moon. The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
This page was last updated on Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 12:26 PM EST.

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