2025 Guide To Meteors, ‘Blood Moon,’ Solar Eclipse And Supermoons

The 2025 celestial calendar doesn’t have as many big events as last year, but there are still plenty of reasons for people to get outside and gaze at the cosmos in wonder.

The highlight of the year is the March 14 total lunar eclipse. It’s called a “blood moon” because the moon gradually turns a rusty or deep red color as it passes through Earth’s dark shadow, or umbra. The blood moon eclipse will be visible throughout North America, Mexico, Central America and South America.

A partial solar eclipse on March 29 will be visible in parts of the eastern U.S., including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. It is the first of two partial solar eclipses in 2025, but people in this part of the world aren’t in the path of the Sept. 21 event.

Alas, there’s no total solar eclipse in store in 2025 The 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse on April 8 was the last chance for most Americans to chase the moon’s shadow on their home turf for another couple of decades. The next solar eclipse sweeps across the Lower 48 states on Aug. 12, 2044, with parts of Montana and North Dakota experiencing totality.

Also, 2025 will see three consecutive supermoons, starting with the Oct. 7 full hunter’s moon. Supermoons occur when the moon is at perigee, the point in its orbit when it is closest to Earth, making it appear bigger and brighter. Although not an official astronomical term, any full moon that is at least 90 percent of perigee may be called a supermoon.

And even though the sun has reached the solar maximum peak in the 11-year Solar Cycle 25, chances are good that 2025 will see more stunning aurora borealis displays seen widely across the country in 2024, including Deep South states.

The northern lights, as the aurora is called in the Northern Hemisphere, are triggered by powerful solar flares and coronal mass ejections that increase in frequency during the solar maximum phase of the natural cycle the sun goes through in the transition between low and high magnetic activity.

Predicting when “Lady Aurora” might bathe the sky in ethereal curtains of purple, pink, green and yellow is tricky, but experts say there’s a good chance auroral activity will continue in 2025, especially between the spring and autumn equinoxes.

Solar Cycle 25 is the most active on record, and space weather forecasters aren’t quite sure why.“It’s one of the many mysteries to unravel,” space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl explained in a briefing with reporters in October 2024. He and others expect more northern lights displays outside the Arctic range in 2025, and perhaps into 2026.

Below are some of the celestial highlights of 2025.

Blood Moon, Full Moons And Supermoons

The moon will stay red for about 65 minutes from 2:26-3:31 a.m. EDT on Friday, March 14, with the total lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses can only happen during a new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun.

Moon gazers will see three consecutive supermoons, all in the fall when Earth’s natural satellite already looks bigger due to an optical illusion known as the “moon illusion” — the perception in our brains that the moon looks larger when it’s near the horizon.

The term supermoon didn’t come from astronomy. Rather, astrologer Richard Nolle coined it in 1979, defining a supermoon as a new or full moon that occurs when it is at its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, making it appear bigger and brighter.

“Interestingly, nobody paid much attention to Nolle's definition until March 19, 2011, when the full moon arrived at an exceptionally close perigee, coming within 126 miles (203 kilometers) of its closest possible approach to Earth,” Joe Rao wrote for Space.com.

Until Nolle “branded” the supermoon, astronomers called the full moon that coincided with perigee as a “perigean full moon,” and it passed without notice.

“Now,” Rao continued, “it seems that every time a full moon coincides with perigee, it is referred to as a supermoon.”

Also in 2025, the full harvest moon is in October instead of September, when it usually occurs. The harvest moon moniker is assigned to whichever full moon falls closest to the autumnal equinox, which in 2025 is on Sept. 22.

Harvest moon is an example of the names associated with full moons by Indigenous cultures to track growing, hunting and other seasons, and later adopted by European settlers. Others, and the dates on which the full moon falls, are:

• Monday, Jan. 13: full wolf moon
• Wednesday, Feb. 12: full snow moon
• Friday, March 14: full worm blood moon
• Saturday, April 12: full pink moon
• Monday, May 12: full flower moon
• Wednesday, June 11: full strawberry moon
• Thursday, July 10: full buck moon
• Saturday, Aug. 9: full sturgeon moon
• Sunday, Sept. 7: full corn moon
• Monday, Oct. 6: full super harvest moon
• Wednesday, Nov. 5: full super beaver moon
• Thursday, Dec. 4: full super cold moon

Meteor Showers

Sandwiched between an often overlooked but worthwhile meteor shower to ring in 2025 and the winter holiday season peak of the year’s best shooting star show are nearly a dozen other meteor showers on the year’s celestial calendar.

Quadrantids, Jan. 3-4 peak: If you’re brave enough to get out in what could be bitterly cold weather in much of the Northern Hemisphere, the first shooting star show of the year, the Quadrantid meteor shower, carries dazzling potential. It runs Dec. 26-Jan. 16, according to NASA. During the narrow, six-hour peak that starts just after midnight, meteors can fly at a rate of 120 an hour. The shooting star show is known for bright fireballs — explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.

Lyrids, April 22-23 peak: This show runs from April 15-29. The Lyrids produce about 18 meteors an hour at the peak, but they’re known for bright dust trails that last for several seconds. The Lyrids are produced by dust particles left behind by the comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher.

Eta Aquariids, May 5-6 peak This meteor shower runs from April 15-May 27. The best place to see it is in the Southern Hemisphere, where 120 meteors an hour may be seen. They’re fast meteors that leave glowing “trains” (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes. In the Northern Hemisphere, about 30 Eta Aquariid meteors can be seen per hour during the shower’s peak. Comet Haley is the parent of this meteor shower, which has been observed since ancient times.

Southern Delta Aquariids, July 30-31 peak: This shower runs from July 18-Aug. 21 and produces about 20 meteors an hour at the peak. The shower is produced by debris left behind by the comets Marsden and Kracht.

Alpha Capricornids, July 29-30 peak: This shower is active from July 12-Aug.12, with a “plateau-like” maximum at the peak. It isn’t a particularly strong shower and rarely produces more than five shooting stars an hour, but what is notable is the number of bright fireballs produced during the peak.

Perseids, Aug. 12-13 peak: Famous for producing a large number of fireballs, the Perseids meteor shower is regarded as one of the best of the year. The shower runs July 14-Sept. 1 and produces up to 100 shooting stars an hour at the peak. The shower, discovered in 1862, is produced by the comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle.

Draconids, Oct. 8 peak: This short meteor shower running from Oct. 6-10, sometimes called the Giacobinid meteor shower in honor of the astronomer who discovered the comet that produces it, passes almost without notice most years with only a smattering of meteors. However, Draconid meteor storms can bring hundreds of shooting stars a minute in some years. Notable reports were filed in Europe in 1933, when 500 shooting stars a minute were observed, and in the United States in 1946, when 50 to 100 meteors an hour were reported. This shower differs from others in that it peaks in the early evening.

Orionids, Oct. 21-22 peak: The Orionid meteor shower, which runs Sept. 26-Nov. 22, produces about 23 meteors an hour but is considered one of the most beautiful shooting star shows of the year. The meteors are both bright and fast, entering Earth’s atmosphere at about 148,000 miles per hour. Meteors that fast can leave glowing trains — that is, incandescent bits of debris that can last several seconds or even minutes — and also fireballs.

Taurids, Oct. 9-10 and Nov. 8-9 peaks: What makes this long-running meteor shower unique is that it consists of two separate streams — the first created by grain dust left behind by Asteroid 2004/TG10, and the second by dust grains left behind by Comet 2P/Encke. Together, they run from about Sept. 28-Dec 2. Both streams are rich in fireballs, and are often responsible for increased numbers of fireball reports, according to the American Meteor Society. The South Taurids run from Sept.10 to Nov. 30, and the North Taurids from Oct. 13-Dec. 1.

Leonids, Nov. 18-19 peak: The Leonids meteor shower runs Nov. 3-Dec. 2 and puts on an average show of about 15 meteors an hour — except during cyclonic peaks that occur about every 33 years, when hundreds of meteors an hour can be seen. It happened last in 2001, putting us years away from a similar show from this shower created by dust grains left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, discovered in 1865.

Geminids, Dec. 13-14 peak: Meteor experts say the Geminid meteor shower is hands-down the best in the heavens, producing 120 meteors at the peak. The meteors are bright, fast and yellowish. Produced by debris left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, discovered in 1982, it runs from Nov. 19-Dec. 24.

Ursids, Dec.21-22 peak: This minor meteor shower runs Dec. 16-26 and offers about five or 10 shooting stars an hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 8P/Tuttle, discovered in 1790.

Equinoxes And Solstices

Equinoxes and solstices mark the changing of the seasons. Solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year, while equinoxes occur when day and night are nearly equally long.

• Spring begins with the spring equinox at 5:01 a.m. EDT on Thursday, March 20. Meteorological spring starts on March 1.
• Summer begins with the summer solstice at 9:51 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 20. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
• Fall begins with the autumnal equinox at 2:19 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 22. Meteorological fall starts on Sept. 1.
• Winter begins with the winter solstice at 10:02 a.m. EST on Sunday, Dec. 21. Meteorological winter starts on Dec. 1.

Sources for this report are NASA, American Meteor Society, EarthSky.org, Space.com, In-the-Sky.org, SeaSky.org, The Old Farmer’s Almanac and Patch reporting.