Moon Phases
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Waning Crescent 24% illuminated
Rise: 5:04 AM
Set: 1:57 PM
Eye on the Night Sky, March 14, 2026
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Today:
The Ides of March meant the middle of March to the Romans, and specifically the night of the Full Moon, because their calendar was a lunar calendar. However, today’s standardized calendars are no longer lunar, and the state of the Moon tonight is a waning crescent.
Sunday:
Orion is now slipping slowly into the southwest, found about one third of the way up from the horizon around 9:30 PM EDT this evening. The bright star below his three belt stars, Rigel, remains distinct. A stellar powerhouse, Rigel generates 120,000 times more light than our Sun, but at a distance of nearly 900 light years.
Monday:
As the star Arcturus climbs to one third of the way above the eastern horizon at 11:00 PM this, look for another brilliant star to return to the skies, the bluish-white Vega, just rising in the north-northeast. Vega appears on any clear night of the year, but shifts into evening skies in the Spring.
Start Chart:
Total Lunar Eclipse
The Moon passes into the Earth’s shadow early Tuesday morning, March 3rd, 2026.
The Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow late at night on Tuesday, March 3rd, just as twilight increases. By the time the Moon is fully eclipsed, it becomes difficult to see in the brightening twilight, and it sets only 20 minutes after the eclipse is total.
The Earth’s rotation causes the stars, as well as the Moon, to rise in the east and set in the west. The Moon’s orbital motion, however, goes the opposite way, with the Moon actually moving from west to east, but much, much more slowly. This means the Moon’s expected motion, lowering toward the western horizon, comes from the Earth’s rotation. The Moon’s actual orbital motion causes it to move into the Earth’s shadow from lower right to upper left. This explains why the shadow starts on the Moon’s upper left, and progresses to the lower right.
Lunar eclipses aren’t rare, but they are also not frequent. The next Total Lunar Eclipse visible here is in June 2029, followed by another in December of 2029.
This program is a partnership between the Fairbanks Museum and Vermont Public.