The Blood Moon of March 3, 2026


While the rest of the world is sharing their eclipse photos, probably composed when the International Space Station was crossing the moon during maximum eclipse, or, perhaps when it was setting over some dramatic scene, like Joshua Tree National Monument, or the Golden Gate Bridge, I share with you here my humble submission from the back yard. 

Yeah, I didn't travel anywhere exotic. Nor did I wait to capture the eclipse with an airplane or the ISS passing through the field of view. No, my picture is just your run-of-the-mill, totally-eclipsed moon, against its natural background of the ho-hum stars of the constellation Leo. 

The morning of March 3rd, here in Tucson, AZ, was balmy. Around 56° F. Skies were perfectly clear. There was no wind. I was looking forward to this eclipse because I haven't shot a lunar eclipse since the partial one we had back on September 17 of 2024. Prior to that, I think I have to go back to May 15, 2022, to find the last time a blood-red moon graced the skies over my back yard.

The only snag that I experienced this time was with AI. Yeah, the Artificial Intelligence that I relied on to tell me the exact time when I should go out and see the beginning of the penumbral phase of the eclipse. The Google version told me that it would start at 1:44 AM, but it was actually an hour later before I could see the penumbral phase. I knew I was in trouble when the AI Overview stated that the total eclipse phase would begin at either "3:01 AM or 4:01 AM, depending on the source." Wow! I should have skipped the AI Overview and consulted the 2026 Observer's Handbook instead!

But that was only a minor glitch. I was glad that the AI version was wrong on the "too early" side of the event! Waiting another hour didn't bother me. On the other hand, had the AI predicted the eclipse too late, causing me to miss it altogether, then I would have been angry!

Lunar eclipses are tough to watch because they are very slow! The whole show lasts two or three hours. And they're often in the middle of the night. Who has the patience and the tolerance to sit out in their back yard, watching the moon pass inexorably through earth's shadow?

Even for a person like myself, a passionate backyard observer, I have to admit that I didn't stay outside for the entire 2 hours available to me to watch this eclipse! Of course, it wasn't my first rodeo. I enjoyed it, like I always do, but I went outside only for a few minutes at a time, watching the major events, such as the start of the penumbral eclipse, and then again at the start of the partial phase. Then I went back inside to warm up before going back outside to watch the totality portion of the eclipse. That is, the Blood Moon.

What's the "Blood Moon" all about?

The Blood Moon is a biblical reference about End Times prophecy. During a total lunar eclipse, the moon passes into the earth's shadow, which isn't completely dark, or black. In reality, sunlight passes through the earth's atmosphere, and the red color of earth's combined sunsets and sunrises lands on the lunar surface, causing it to appear very red, even to the unaided eye. The ancients called this color "blood red." One of the most popular Bible verses regarding lunar eclipses is Joel 2:31, that states, "The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes."

But the passages in the Bible about the "moon turning to blood" didn't really gain popularity in modern news reports until the total lunar eclipse of April 15, 2014. That eclipse was the beginning of a telrad of total lunar eclipses (four in a row) that ended in September of 2015. American pastor and televangelist John Hagee predicted that this particular telrad of lunar eclipses was the actual biblical signal of the End Times, when the second-coming of Christ would rapture away all Christians on the earth to their eternal reward. Naturally, Christ didn't return in 2015. But ever since then, whenever there has been a total lunar eclipse, the media has referred to them as "blood moons." They seem to love that term. Even I have to admit that it's quite the catch phrase!

As an amateur astronomer who was also the son of a preacher man, I learned a lot about the "Signs and Wonders" of the Bible as a child. I didn't really think of them as naturally occurring events in nature. But when I became an amateur astronomer and saw my first lunar eclipse, it made me think differently about them. Think about this for a second. If "the sun turning black" and the "moon turning to blood" are references to solar and lunar eclipses, respectively, how can these be "Signs and Wonders" if they are also subject to earth's weather? After all, I waited for years to see my first partial solar eclipse, but on the appointed day, we got rain! Why would God make a fabulous sign in the heavens, and then cause it to be clouded out so that we couldn't see it? 

Last night's lunar eclipse didn't get clouded out, but it happened at 4 o'clock in the morning! Most people in my neighborhood slept through it. Throughout history, solar and lunar eclipses have occurred either in remote places (where nobody could see them) or at inconvenient times of day (like 4 AM) when nobody was watching.

Consider another "Signs and Wonders," in the form of meteor showers, for instance. The phrase used in the Bible would be "stars falling to earth, as ripe figs." Meteor showers are best viewed after midnight, when most people are asleep. But sleepy people aren't the only problem. Meteor showers, like the famous Perseid meteor shower that occurs every August, can occur when the moon is full and it brightens the sky so much that we can't see the meteors! And think about the fantastic meteor shower of the Leonids, peaking every 33 years. In 1966, the Leonids were seen as a true meteor "shower" that dumped thousands of meteors per minute under dark skies in the wee hours of November 17th. But who was watching? It happened in the middle of the night when most people were fast asleep. The last good Leonid meteor shower occurred in November of 2001. The 24/7 news coverage, beginning after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centers, highlighted the Leonid meteor shower for the first time in national media. More people than ever were made aware of the Leonid meteor shower, and it happened to coincide with the best meteor shower since 1966 (33 years later would be 1999, but meteor shower peaks are difficult to predict). It would have been tempting to interpret the "stars falling like ripe figs" on that night to mean "the End is near." But that was 25 years ago, and we're still here.

The weather was favorable for the lunar eclipse of March 3rd, and I watched it with both cameras and my unaided eyes. It was beautiful and peaceful over my back yard. Was it a harbinger of doom because it happened to coincide with unrest in the world? Is it a signal to End Times? Time will tell.

Above is my wider-angle shot through a camera lens. The moon got a little washed out, but you can see how dark the sky is when the full moon passes into the earth's shadow. The eclipsed moon fell in the constellation Leo, the Lion. Hmmm. Some people have claimed that Leo represents the "Lion of Judah." I'll leave it up to you to interpret what it means for a Blood Moon occurring in Leo in our times.



  

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