It’s not too early, if you’re in the western US or Canada, to get prepared for a late night. The Moon will move into total eclipse on Tuesday March 3 by Universal Time, but in the very late hours of Monday March 2 by clocks in America.
To add to the explanations and illustrations on pages 96 and 97 of Astronomical Calendar 2026, here is the sky scene over the western horizon for California.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations. The Moon is exaggerated 4 times in size.
The moment chosen for the scene, just before midnight by local time, is 45 minutes before “first contact,” when the Moon touches the pale penumbra or outer shadow of the Earth. You can see that the Moon, traveling along its path that here descends across the ecliptic (the Sun’s path), is about to overtake the “anti-Sun.”
An hour later, at 9:50 UT, will come the exciting moment of first umbral contact: the much more definite edge of Earth’s total shadow bites the Moon. And then to wait on and see how dark this shadow is on this occasion and how much it is reddened by sunlight diverted into it by the dirty lens of our atmosphere.
As moonlight dwindles, gradually the sky darkens and more stars may become discernible, toward the beginning of total eclipse at 11 UT.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.
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