A total lunar eclipse will turn the moon a deep, blood red overnight Thursday, March 13 into Friday, March 14. (Dreamstime)

By Alex Rawnsley

blood moon

Fingers crossed: Mid-Island weather may cooperate for total lunar eclipse

Mar 13, 2025 | 12:32 PM

NANAIMO — While the skies aren’t likely to be completely clear, forecasted conditions are improving for a special celestial show.

A total lunar eclipse will occur overnight Thursday, March 13 into Friday, March 14, spanning a period of around six hours for those on Vancouver Island and turning the moon a deep, blood red colour.

VIU astronomy professor Dr. Gregory Arkos told NanaimoNewsNOW the show will get started around 9 p.m., with the best viewing between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

“Sometimes we hear these things called Blood Moons, because during the deepest part of the eclipse the Moon passes into the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, and almost all light gets cut off. Instead of having a brilliant full moon, what you’re left with is this very deep, dark red blood red colored moon.”

The only thing which could spoil the event is the weather.

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Environment Canada is calling for partly or mainly cloudy skies in the Nanaimo and Oceanside areas Thursday night, with a chance of rain showers.

The presence of the cloud cover could make finding the moon during peak times a bit tricky.

“You’re going to look for this big bright thing, and it’s not going to be big and bright, it’ll be there, and it’ll be very visible still, but it’ll be much dimmer and much deeper red color. It can be challenging, especially if it’s partly cloudy, because it’s hard to use the stars to figure out exactly where the moon might be.”

Should the clouds dissipate enough, the darkness from the eclipse will help to highlight various constellations in the sky, including Orion and Canis Major, which features the brightest visible star to Earth, Sirius.

This event is also one of the last of its kind in the immediate future.

Another lunar eclipse will be visible in the region on March 3, 2026, with a deep partial eclipse also due in August 2026.

However, no further events are poised to be visible from the Island for several years following.

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