By Noel Brennan
March 13, 2025 / 6:34 PM CDT / CBS Chicago
Anyone with a chance overnight to glance up in the sky will see something spectacular — a blood-red moon, which will happen during a total lunar eclipse.
This month’s full moon is due to pass through the shadow of late Thursday night into early Friday morning, and thus, those who wish to view it will have to stay up past midnight to get the most out of the experience.
The good news is that unlike a solar eclipse, there is no need for any special equipment to view a lunar eclipse.
One place where the moon is quite a big deal is Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. The Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” sky show at the Adler is over now after a year and a half, but there is a lot to learn there about the actual moon — including an “Imagine the Moon” sky show, a journey into space with NASA Capt. James Lovell and other scientists that helped us reach the moon, and a model of the moon that shows every crater.
“You come here to Adler, you can see all 360 degrees of the moon — even the stuff that we can’t see here from earth,” said Adler Planetarium astrophysicist Michael Zevin.
On Thursday night into Friday morning, of course, it’s not models of the moon that the Adler Planetarium scientists are excited about. They’ll be looking up in the sky at the actual moon too.
“It’s going to be blocked by the Earth’s shadow completely, which gives us a total lunar eclipse,” Zevin said.
This particular event has a slightly unsettling name — the Blood Worm Moon. What are bloodworms? They’re segmented worms found in shallow tidal flats and are often used as fishing bait, but which also bite. And the name Blood Worm Moon has absolutely nothing to do with them.
“Blood” just refers to the color.
“So, the sun’s light is going through our atmosphere, getting filtered out,” said Zevin, “Blue light is getting scattered away, and the red light is passing through and then hitting the moon.”
Meanwhile, the March full moon is always known as the Blood Moon.
“Spring is around the corner,” Zevin explained. “Earthworms are starting to pop up out of the ground.”
For those viewing in the Chicago area, the eclipse starts around midnight Thursday night, and reaches totality at 1:26 a.m.
“When you’re looking at the full moon tonight during the eclipse — during totality — you’re essentially seeing all of the sunrises and sunsets happening on earth simultaneously being projected onto the moon,” Zevin said.
Totality lasts for just over an hour.
Adler director of public observing Michelle Nichols and astronomy educator Hunter Miller will livestream the event from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for their YouTube live series, “Sky Observers Hangout.”
Nichols and Miller will start the live stream from Carbondale at 12:05 a.m. They will show views of the eclipse from all over the U.S. and will answer astronomy questions.
The Adler is working with Southern Illinois University to host a viewing event for the eclipse. SIU is opening observation area on the lawn at the Neckers building on the Carbondale campus Thursday night — and is inviting visitors to bring lawn chairs, blankets, telescopes, photo equipment, and coolers, though no alcohol is allowed.
Carbondale — a town that coincidentally was in the path of totality for solar eclipses in 2017 and 2024 — is five hours away from Chicago. But Zevin said it is totally worth staying up — and looking up in the sky yourself — to see the eclipse wherever you are.
“Definitely a late night for lunar gazers tonight, but definitely something that’s worth seeing,” Zevini said.
The next chance for Chicago to see a total lunar eclipse is March of next year.
Adam Harrington contributed to this report.
