The full moon of February peaks at 5:09 p.m. ET on Sunday, just before sunset and is usually particularly dramatic as it is low in the eastern sky. The time is important since a Moon close to the horizon may seem larger with the naked eye and the otherwise simple evening walk can be transformed into a skywatching experience.
The name of the “snow moon” goes back to the heavy winter snowfall frequently related to this period of year in some areas of North America, whereas other folklore names refer to wind, sleet and the beginning of spring. Although it is not ideally in time, the lunar disk does not crack between full and not-full during the night, and often appears full to the naked eye over a few evenings. NASA lunar scientist Noah Petro has urged individuals to take this window to train their skills by observing what remains on the Moon, and what changes with every change in the angle of light with each night.
That mere custom peeping more than once so soon displays the reason why the Moon is so convenient a subject of study of the sky. The Moon is tidally locked and therefore the side of the Moon is always facing the Earth but it always seems different as shadows move over craters, ridges and lava plains. A full Moon may appear bright and flat due to the sun almost rays directly on the relief, which erases the relief. When the Moon is gibbous or crescent-shaped, the day/night boundary on the surface, known as the terminator, will give a long shadow that lines mountains and the edges of craters, making them appear carved. The use of binoculars instantly introduces texture, and a small telescope can cause a familiar marking to divide into a recognizable landscape: crater chains, waving rilles, and bright systems of rays spreading out with newer impacts.
The pattern of dark lunar maria is one of the simplest of the “first maps” – broad basalt plains that developed as impact basins in the ancient period, and which were subsequently filled with lava. The dark spots occupy approximately 15 per cent of the lunar crust, and are visible with the naked eye on a clear night, but their edges and the craters close at hand can be followed more readily with the aid of the binoculars. The less dense highlands around them have an even earlier crustal history, and the difference between the two surfaces will serve as a useful guide to any one who attempts to learn where he is gazing upon the lunar face. That familiarity also pays to be paid when the Moon puts on lighter lighting.
A complete lunar eclipse may only occur during full Moon when the Sun, the Earth and the Moon coincide and the Moon enters the shadow of the earth. The Moon may appear red-orange at totality, as the sunlight passes through the atmosphere of the Earth before hitting the surface of the Moon- also referred to as a cumulative of all the sunrises and sunsets of the world being reflected on the Moon. The same physics as the warm colours of sunsets cause the sky to be blue, as the earth the atmosphere only blocks shorter wavelengths, which are blue, and lets more red and orange light pass through the atmosphere, also known as Rayleigh scattering. The precise color of it may fluctuate as the Moon passes through the umbra and the amount of atmospheric dust and clouds altered by the Moon bends less light into the shadow.
All that an observer with a view of the Moon needs during the eclipse of March 3, 2026, is the clear view of the Moon, although binoculars can be used to observe the gradient of color and shadow on familiar maria. As the Moon will be setting in Leo that night, the darkening also will allow one to more easily identify background stars and constellations than during an average full-Moon night.
There are two versions of the same world in February and early March: initially, it is a winter lantern, then it is a place whose surface structures are made more significant the instant one begins to learn its geography, between the full multi-night snow moon and the dark eclipse.
