A total eclipse of the Moon is coming up early next month on March 3rd. According to NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Utah Patrick Wiggins, “The show will start officially just before 2:00am when the Moon enters Earth’s rather faint and fuzzy outer shadow.” But Wiggins cautions that most people probably won’t see much until it enters the dark part of Earth’s shadow about 2:50am when, for Utah, the Moon will be about half way up the southwestern sky. “But the main event,” according to Wiggins, “will start at 4:04am when the entire Moon will be engulfed in the dark part of Earth’s shadow and totality begins.” Some eclipses have been so dark the Moon has disappeared. Usually, however, some light does leak around the edge of the Earth giving the Moon a yellowish, to coppery, or even blood red appearance. Totality will peak at 4:35am and end at 5:03am as the Moon begins to move out of the dark part of Earth’s shadow.
