The last time we could see a total lunar eclipse across Nebraska and Iowa was in November of 2022, but we finally get to see another one late Thursday night and into Friday morning.
A lunar eclipse is when the moon passes through the Earth's shadow, which has two areas. The inner area of the shadow is darkest, where only light that passes through our thin atmosphere can reach. Just like a sunrise or sunset, the light is scattered, and only the red light enters the inner or full shadow. Outside of the full shadow, there is partial shadow, where some light gets past the Earth, but not all of it.
Here in Nebraska and Iowa, the moon will start to enter the partial shadow at 11:30 Thursday night (3/13). Over the following half hour, the moon will slowly start to get darker. The entire moon will be in the partial shadow at 12:09 a.m. Friday (3/14), dimming its brightness. Just after that, a sliver of the moon will start to enter the full shadow, and the red light will start to spread across the moon over the next hour and a half. The entire moon will be in the full shadow starting at 1:26 a.m. Friday, giving the entire moon the rusty red coloring. This will last through 2:32, which is when the moon will slowly start to exit the full shadow and start to lose its color. At 3:48 a.m. Friday, the entire moon will be back in the partial shadow, losing all of its red color. The moon gets back to its normal brightness at 4:30, which is when it will fully be out of the partial shadow.
If you miss this one, the next total lunar eclipse visible here will be in March of 2026.
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