Toronto is about to be graced with an absolutely stunning and extremely special celestial show in the form of a total lunar eclipse, also known as a “blood moon,” this week.
On the night of Thursday, March 13 and into the morning of Friday, March 14, residents of the city and across this side of the world will want to look to the skies, as the Sun, Moon and Earth will be in perfect alignment for the phenomenon.
This will be the first blood moon — named as such because the Earth’s shadow tinges the satellite completely red — visible from anywhere on the planet since 2022.
The event will kick off with what is called the penumbral eclipse, the first stage in which the Moon starts creeping into the Earth’s shadow, at 11:57 p.m Thursday in Toronto time, or 3:57 a.m Friday in UTC time.
The partial eclipse will begin just more than an hour later, at 1:09 a.m. Friday local time (5:09 a.m. Friday UTC, for those outside our time zone), with the full eclipse commencing soonafter, 2:26 a.m. EDT (6:26 a.m. UTC).
The peak of totality will take place at 2:58 a.m. EDT (6:58 a.m. UTC), with the Moon remaining completely shrouded in a red haze until 3:31 a.m. EDT (7:31 a.m. UTC). Then, the partial eclipse will fade out at 4:47 a.m. in Toronto (8:47 a.m. UTC time), and finally, the natural satellite will fully pass through the last of the Earth’s shadow at 6 a.m. (10 a.m. UTC).
While some 3.2 billion people across all time zones are expected to be able to see the phenomenon at least in part, only 863 million — or about 10.5 per cent of the world’s population — will be treated to the full thing.
Because the Moon is remaining above Toronto’s horizon line throughout the spectacle, the entire eclipse and all of its stages should be viewable from the region, weather permitting.
How to best witness the eclipse
Of course, the best way to experience this event is to watch from somewhere with as little light pollution as possible, so head outside the city and away from civilization, if you can. (Real space buffs would recommend a dark sky preserve, of which there are a few in Ontario.)
Fuel up, plant yourself in a way that you can comfortably look up for an extended period of time, start your viewing early on to let your eyes adjust to the dark, and face eastward away from the sun if you’re early enough that there is still light in the sky.
Note that no special equipment or viewing glasses are necessary, unlike during last year’s solar eclipse. But your ability to observe things will, unfortunately, be contingent upon the weather.
Forecast for March 13–14, 2025
Presently, The Weather Network forecast for Toronto on the big night is for partly cloudy skies — so it’s not necessarily a total bust. If it had been one night before, the show would have been ruined by scattered flurries and denser, more persistent cloud cover.
It also appears that temps will stay comfortably above 0 C.
And Environment Canada has an even better outlook for stargazers, predicting clear skies overnight Thursday into Friday, and warmer temps of around 5 C.
While the next total lunar eclipse is set to be discernable from parts of the world in early September 2025, North America won’t see another until this time next year.
