Blood Moon Setting, Toronto

Toronto awoke to a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. This composite image captured the eclipse sequence unfolding behind the Toronto skyline, from the start of the partial eclipse at 4:50 am, till the eclipsed moon went behind the skyline at 6:14 am. Totality started at 6:04 am, just as the sky gradually brightened from the morning twilight. All the images in this sequence and the Toronto skyline were captured at 3-minute intervals from the same camera angle from Polson Pier.

A total lunar eclipse is also called a “blood moon”. The eclipsed moon is not totally dark – sunlight can reach the moon via refraction by Earth’s atmosphere. The reddish colour of the moon is due to the blue part of sunlight being scattered by Earth’s atmosphere, leaving primarily red and orange light reaching the moon – the exact same reason why the sun is orange during sunset.