What does a total lunar eclipse look like from the moon? In the early hours of Friday, March 14, 2025, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander will witness a total solar eclipse caused by Earth blocking the sun at the exact same moment that North America sees a “blood moon” total lunar eclipse.
The lander’s unique vantage point is expected to show a glowing “ring of fire” around the Earth, a halo of reddish light that's effectively all of Earth's sunrises and sunsets.
Blue Ghost’s Unique Lunar Perspective
A total lunar eclipse sees the full moon enter Earth’s dark umbral shadow in space, turning it reddish for a period. That will last for 65 minutes tonight. From Blue Ghost’s landing site in the Sea of Crises (close to the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed in 1969), totality — when Earth will completely obscure the sun as seen from the moon — will start at 1:18 a.m. CST, according to Firefly.
While observers on Earth will witness a total lunar eclipse — commonly known as a “blood moon” — Blue Ghost will see Earth’s silhouette encircled by a glowing red ring of refracted sunlight. “We hope to capture this incredible phenomenon and share it with the world,” said Firefly, in an email.
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A Silhouette Of Earth In A Glowing Ring
During a total lunar eclipse, Earth moves between the sun and moon, blocking direct sunlight from falling upon the moon. However, the sun’s light bends around the planet due to Rayleigh scattering in the Earth’s atmosphere. Shorter wavelengths, such as blue and violet, scatter away, while longer wavelengths —chiefly red and orange — more easily pass through and illuminate the lunar surface.
From the moon, this light appears as a red halo surrounding Earth’s dark disk, essentially a projection of all the world’s sunrises and sunsets onto the lunar landscape. This effect, while easy for scientists to explain, has never been directly observed from the moon — until now.
Shortly after landing, Blue Ghost captured the Earth from the lunar surface with a wide-lens cameras ... [+] on its top deck.Firefly Aerospace
Capturing Totality
Firefly has equipped Blue Ghost with a wide-lens camera on its top deck, designed to capture this historic moment. “The glowing ring will likely appear fairly small in the distance, similar to the size of Earth captured by Blue Ghost upon landing on the moon on March 2,” said Firefly (image above).
However, taking images during the eclipse will be challenging and success is not guaranteed. That’s because the lander relies on solar panels, which during the event won’t be possible. While the moon is draped in red hues during totality, the light is far dimmer than direct sunlight. Blue Ghost will therefore need to operate solely on battery power. “Capturing this footage requires Blue Ghost to rely on its batteries for power rather than its solar panels, so it will be challenge to image during the darkness of the eclipse,” said Firefly.
Blue Ghost’s Final Act
Post-totality, Blue Ghost will have one final job. A lunar day lasts about 29 Earth days, with daylight and night each spanning approximately 14.5 days. As lunar night falls on March 16, the mission will have to operate solely on battery, something it cannot do for more than a few hours. As a final act it will attempt to capture a high-definition video of a lunar sunset.
Blue Ghost made only the second-ever commercial landing on the Moon on March 2, at the foot of the Mons Latreille mountain in the Sea of Crises.
When Is The ‘Blood Moon’ Total Lunar Eclipse 2025?
Here’s everything you need to know about the times of the total lunar eclipse for every U.S. state, but here’s a summary of the exact times of totality:
Eastern: 2:26-3:31 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 14.
Central: 1:26 a.m. to 2:31 a.m. CDT on Friday, March 14.
Mountain: 12:26-1:31 a.m. MDT on Friday, March 14.
Pacific: 11:26 p.m. PST on Thursday, March 13, to 12:31 a.m. PDT on Friday, March 14.
Alaska: 10:26-11:31 p.m. ADT on Thursday, March 13.
Hawaii): 8:26-9:31 p.m. HST on Thursday, March 13.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.