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By: Vivian Hare 3/11/26
The last lunar eclipse for two years happened on March 3rd, 2026. A lunar eclipse is when the moon turns red, via a blood moon. This happens roughly every year in different places. This is not to be mixed up with a solar eclipse that happens every 4 years and is much rarer.
A Lunar Eclipse at Totality
It’s honestly pretty wild to think about how lucky we were to catch that view on March 3rd. While a lot of people just think of the moon as that white glowing rock in the sky, seeing it shift into that deep, "blood moon" red is a total game-changer. It’s one of those rare moments where you realize just how much is going on in space while we’re down here just doing our homework. Since we won't get another one of these for two whole years, that night was basically our last chance to see the Earth's shadow doing its thing for a long while.
Even though these happen roughly every year, they never really get old because the timing has to be so perfect. These have happened for such a long time; Shakespeare has written about it in Sonnet 35. “Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, and loathsome canker lives in the sweetest bud." — Sonnet 35. It’s definitely way more accessible than a solar eclipse, which feels like a once-in-a-lifetime event since they only pop up every four years and usually require you to travel to some random location just to be in the "path of totality." Lunar eclipses are way more chill—you just have to look up. If you were in the Americas, East Asia, or Australia, you basically had a front-row seat to one of nature's coolest light shows without even needing special glasses.
The Lunar Eclipse of 2015 Totality
Watching the moon turn that eerie red color is also a great reminder of how connected everything is. That "blood" tint actually comes from Earth’s atmosphere filtering out the blue light and bending the red light toward the moon—kind of like a sunset being projected into space. It’s easy to take for granted, but when you’re standing outside in the cold looking at it, you realize it’s a pretty massive scientific event. "It’s the laws of physics that allow us to say exactly what time the sun is going to rise... what time the eclipse is going to begin". Missing out on that for the next two years is kind of a bummer, but it definitely makes the memories of this one feel a lot more special.
For those of us who woke up early to watch it, the experience was about more than just a yearly event. It was a moment where everyone across different continents, from New York to Sydney, was looking at the same phenomenon at the same time. In a world where we’re usually staring at our phone screens, it’s nice to have a reason to look at the sky instead. It gives you a bit of perspective on how big the universe is and how small our daily drama feels when the moon is literally changing colors right in front of us.
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