North America will have a blood worm moon this week. Here's how you can see it

Anand Ram · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

This week, robed successful twilight, a "blood worm" will pierce the nighttime sky. As ominous arsenic that sounds, don't deliberation leeches — deliberation lunar.

Late Thursday nighttime oregon Friday aboriginal morning, North Americans with wide skies tin look up to spot a afloat satellite with a beauteous reddish hue. 

And portion it has that eerie nickname, it's not the lone one, depending connected antithetic cultures.  

…Blood? 

This lawsuit is really 2 occurrences coming together: a full eclipse of the satellite by the Earth astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic it goes done a afloat satellite signifier for March. It's not excessively uncommon for this to happen. The past March full lunar eclipse was successful 1978, according to NASA — though overmuch of North America couldn't spot it.  

The "blood" portion is from the eclipse. When the Earth passes successful beforehand of the moon, it obscures the sun's airy from hitting it — but immoderate inactive sneaks through. To recognize wherefore the satellite turns that colour, amateur astronomer Dave Chapman says you person to ideate you're an astronaut connected the satellite during the eclipse. 

"The prima is shining connected the Earth from behind. It's being backlit," explains Chapman, a chap astatine the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. "The Earth's look volition beryllium dark, but on the borderline — wherever the ambiance is — determination is sunlight filtering through." 

But that airy comes from each the parts of the satellite that are experiencing sunrises oregon sunsets. As airy during those times are much reddish and orange, this is the hue that hits the satellite and reflects backmost to us. 

However, it's not ever humor red. Its variations, from wholly invisible to copper, are measured successful the Danjon scale. We won't cognize wherever this peculiar eclipse rates connected that standard until aft it happens. 

Chapman says there's different unsocial prime from this "side-lighting" effect from Earth: It volition besides alteration however we comprehend the signifier of the moon. 

"Normally erstwhile you look astatine the afloat satellite ... it doesn't look similar a sphere, it conscionable looks similar a disc," Chapman told CBC News from Dartmouth, N.S. But the eclipse lighting turns it from a flat, bright, silvery disc into much of "a sphere hanging successful the sky." 

...Worm?

The timing of this eclipse besides aligns with however antithetic cultures astir the satellite notation to the satellite during this peculiar month. 

Experts property the "worm" moniker to Indigenous tribes successful the confederate U.S. who would spot much insects and earthworms look during this clip of year, and it stuck done its usage successful the Old Farmer's Almanac arsenic March's afloat moon. 

But different cultures didn't spot those worms, alternatively calling it by antithetic names. For example, "more bluish tribes of the northeastern United States knew this arsenic the crow moon, with the cawing of crows signalling the extremity of winter," writes NASA's Gordon Johnston. 

To Mi'kmaq, whose accepted territories see Eastern and Atlantic Canada, the satellite astir March is known arsenic Si'ko'ku's (pronounced see-uke-ay-we-goos), oregon the maple oregon maple sweetener moon, owing to this clip of twelvemonth erstwhile sap starts running down trees. 

"A batch of the time, the moons are reflective of the play and the clip of year," says Hilding Neilson, an astronomer and prof astatine Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. He says this contextual naming of lunar cycles is common. 

"For galore cultures astir the world, the satellite is thing you ticker and you spot things alteration [around you]. And truthful you get assorted names reflecting community, telling stories and however you operate," Neilson told CBC News from St. John's. 

That's wherefore a "blood worm" to immoderate could be a "scarlet crow" or adjacent a "red maple" moon to others.

So erstwhile tin I spot it? 

Seeing it successful Canada volition mean staying up precocious oregon waking up precise early. The bully quality is that you won't request immoderate peculiar instrumentality to presumption it and airy contamination won't impact visibility. 

The eclipse's totality volition past for conscionable implicit an hour, with its strongest signifier successful the middle. 

• Newfoundland time: Starting astatine 3:56 a.m. to 5:01 a.m. connected Friday, March 14 
• Eastern time: Starting astatine 2:26 a.m. to 3:31 a.m. connected Friday, March 14.
• Central time: Starting astatine 1:26 a.m. to 2:31 a.m. connected Friday, March 14.
• Mountain time: Starting astatine 12:26 a.m. to 1:31 a.m. connected Friday, March 14.
• Pacific time: Starting astatine 11:26 p.m. connected Thursday, March 13, to 12:31 a.m. connected Friday, March 14.

And if you miss it, don't worry. There's different 1 astatine the aforesaid clip adjacent year.