Shades of a Lunar Eclipse

On March 3, 2026, Earth lined up directly between the Moon and the Sun, casting its shadow on the full Moon. The total lunar eclipse was visible throughout the Americas, East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. Skygazers in those parts of the world may have witnessed a "Blood Moon," when the dimmed lunar surface temporarily turned an orange-red color.

Meanwhile, satellites observed the effect of the darkened Moon on Earth's surface.

The VIIRS day-night band detects nighttime light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, reflected moonlight, and auroras. The darkest swath was acquired at 11:20 Universal Time (2:20 a.m. Alaska Standard Time), about 15 minutes after the total phase had begun. With very little moonlight reaching Earth, ribbons of light from the aurora borealis shine through, along with specks of artificial light from settlements in the Yukon and eastern Alaska.