Early on March 3, a total lunar eclipse gave people in the Adirondack region a glimpse of the red moon. The eclipse took place before sunrise, with the moon low in the sky while Earth’s shadow moved across it. In the Lake Placid area, the eclipse began around 3:44 a.m. The partial phase started at 4:50 a.m., and totality began at 6:04 a.m., just before the moon dropped below the horizon.
Photo by Jacob Slagel ’26.
What makes lunar eclipses so notable is the Moon’s color. During totality, the moon appears red or reddish-orange instead of white. While the Earth blocks most direct sunlight, some light still passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. That extra light gets distorted, which in turn affects the moon’s color.
Photo by Jacob Slagel ’26.
A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth moves directly between the sun and the moon. When they line up, Earth will block sunlight from reaching the moon, casting a shadow across its surface. This kind of event can only happen during a full moon, which is why lunar eclipses are uncommon.
Photo by Jacob Slagel ’26.
However, in the Adirondacks, the timing made the eclipse more challenging to see. By the time the moon turned fully red, it was already low in the sky, making hills, trees, or buildings block the view. The true maximum of the eclipse wasn’t fully visible from the area since the moon set so soon after totality began.
Even so, the eclipse is a reminder that sky events don’t always need fancy equipment or complicated planning to be interesting. For a few minutes on an ordinary March morning, the moon looked completely different from normal, giving anyone awake a view of a familiar object in a new way.
