{"id":13139,"date":"2026-03-02T14:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blood-orange-lunar-eclipse-comes-to-the-four-corners-region-early-tuesday-morning\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:57","slug":"blood-orange-lunar-eclipse-comes-to-the-four-corners-region-early-tuesday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blood-orange-lunar-eclipse-comes-to-the-four-corners-region-early-tuesday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood-orange lunar eclipse comes to the Four Corners region early Tuesday morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The sun\u2019s rays filtering through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere will create a \u201cblood moon\u201d across the Americas as well as Asia and Australia on Tuesday. (Journal file photo)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Clear skies permitting, Southwest Colorado and surrounding areas will witness a total lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning, the last of its kind for nearly three years.<\/p>\n

As Earth positions itself between the sun and the moon, the region will be among several places across the globe able to see the eclipse. For 58 minutes, the full moon will be in total eclipse as the sun\u2019s rays filter through Earth\u2019s atmosphere and cast orange light across its surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a gorgeous blood moon eclipse in the lower western sky until it disappears over the western horizon at sunrise,\u201d said local weather spotter Jim Andrus.<\/p>\n

He and many others across the American, Asian and Australian continents will rise to watch the moon enter total eclipse at 4:04 a.m. Mountain time. Totality will last until 5:02 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI normally wake up at that time so I\u2019m certainly going to be looking out my bedroom window at least,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n

The eclipse is best viewed under clear skies, though clouds may limit visibility for residents in the Four Corners region. At 4 a.m., the chance of cloud cover blocking the sky in Cortez is 20%, according to National Weather Service forecaster Kate Abbott. The likelihood is similar around the Four Corners and increases to the northeast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe better chances will be as south and west as you can get in Colorado,\u201d Abbott said of those hoping for clear skies.<\/p>\n

Even if clouds move through, viewers may still catch glimpses of the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be one of those things where you get a peak in between those clouds that are passing through,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse can be viewed safely with the naked eye. NASA recommends<\/a> finding a dark environment and using binoculars or a telescope to enhance the experience.<\/p>\n

The next total lunar eclipse visible in the United States will not occur until late 2028, so Andrus encourages anyone interested to set an early alarm to see Tuesday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hope we can get a clear sky tomorrow before sunrise,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

permitting, Southwestern Colorado and surrounding areas will witness a total lunar eclipse, the last of its kind for nearly three more years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18830,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13139\/revisions\/18830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13139"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}