You’re probably here because you saw a viral TikTok or a cryptic Facebook post showing a massive, deep-red orb hanging over a city skyline. It looks apocalyptic. It looks cool. But honestly, most of those "Is there a blood moon today?" alerts are just engagement bait or old photos recirculating. To give you the quick answer right at the top: No, there is no total lunar eclipse—commonly called a blood moon—occurring today, January 18, 2026.
Space is big and predictable, but our social feeds are chaotic.
A blood moon isn't just a moon that looks a bit orange because of wildfire smoke or pollution. It’s a specific astronomical event. We’re talking about a total lunar eclipse. That's when the Earth slides directly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow (the umbra) across the lunar surface. Instead of the moon going totally black, it turns a ghostly, rusty red. Why? Because Earth's atmosphere acts like a lens. It bends the red wavelengths of sunlight—the same ones that make sunsets pretty—and mirrors them onto the moon. It’s basically every sunset and sunrise on Earth projected onto the lunar dust all at once.
When is the next actual blood moon?
If you missed the last one, you're going to be waiting a little bit. According to NASA’s eclipse experts like Fred Espenak (the "Mr. Eclipse" of the science world), the next total lunar eclipse isn't happening tonight. We are currently in a bit of a gap. The next time the moon will fully blush red is March 3, 2026.
That upcoming March event is going to be a big deal for people in North and South America. But for today? The moon is currently in its Waning Gibbous phase. It’s roughly 99% illuminated since we just had the Full Wolf Moon a few days ago. It might look bright and impressive as it rises, but it’s going to be its standard pearly white or yellowish hue, not that deep crimson people get excited about.
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The "Wolf Moon" itself often gets confused with the blood moon because people love catchy nicknames. Every month has a name—Strawberry Moon, Hunter’s Moon, Cold Moon—but none of those change the actual color of the rock in the sky. Only an eclipse does that.
Why the internet keeps lying to you about the moon
It happens every few weeks. Someone posts a photo of a "Blood Moon" with a caption like LOOK AT THE SKY TONIGHT! and it gets 40,000 shares. Usually, these posts are trying to sell you something or just farm likes. Or, people get confused by "Moon Illusion" or atmospheric scattering.
Have you ever noticed the moon looks huge and orange right when it’s near the horizon? That’s not a blood moon. That’s just physics. When the moon is low, its light has to travel through a much thicker layer of Earth’s atmosphere to reach your eyes. This scatters the blue light and lets the red and orange light through. It's beautiful, sure. It’s just not an eclipse.
There’s also the "Supermoon" hype. While a Supermoon is technically closer to Earth (at perigee), the visual difference is tiny. Most people can't actually tell the difference between a regular full moon and a supermoon without a telescope or side-by-side photos. But put the words "Super Blood Wolf Moon" together and suddenly everyone is outside with their iPhones trying to snap a grainy blurry dot.
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What to look for instead tonight
Even though there isn't a blood moon today, the night sky is actually pretty busy. If you have clear skies, you should stop looking for red tints and start looking for planets.
- Mars is currently quite prominent. If you see a "star" that doesn't twinkle and has a distinct reddish-orange tint, that’s actually the Red Planet. People often mistake Mars for a weirdly colored moon or a flare.
- Jupiter is also hanging around, usually the brightest thing in the sky other than the moon itself.
- Saturn might be visible early in the evening depending on your exact latitude.
The moon itself, being just past full, is still incredibly bright. This is actually a bad time for stargazing if you want to see the Milky Way or faint meteors. The moon's glare acts like natural light pollution, washing out everything else. If you want to see the stars, you actually want a New Moon, which is the exact opposite of what we have right now.
The science of the "Blood" color
Let’s nerd out for a second. The technical term for what causes a blood moon is Rayleigh scattering. It’s the same reason the sky is blue. Blue light has shorter wavelengths and gets scattered easily by gas molecules in the air. Red light has longer wavelengths and passes through more easily.
During a total lunar eclipse, the only light reaching the moon's surface is what has passed through Earth’s atmosphere. If Earth had no atmosphere, the moon would go completely pitch black during an eclipse. It would just vanish. Instead, our air filters the light. Interestingly, the color of a blood moon can tell us about the health of our planet. If there have been recent massive volcanic eruptions, the moon will look a much darker, darker red or even brown because of the extra ash in the stratosphere. If the air is relatively clean, it looks more like a bright orange-red copper penny.
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Preparation for March 2026
Since you're clearly interested in the "Is there a blood moon today" question, you should start prepping for the March 3rd event now. You don't need fancy equipment. Unlike a solar eclipse, you don't need those cardboard glasses. You can stare at a lunar eclipse all night and your eyes will be perfectly fine.
You should, however, grab a pair of basic 10x50 binoculars. They’re cheap—usually around $50—and they turn a blurry red circle into a 3D-looking sphere where you can actually see the craters under the red shadow. It’s a completely different experience.
Actionable Skywatching Steps
If you want to stay updated without getting fooled by social media hoaxes, do these three things:
- Check a Real Calendar: Bookmark the NASA Eclipse Web Site. It is the gold standard. It lists every eclipse for the next thousand years. If it’s not on their list, it’s not happening.
- Download a Sky Map App: Apps like Stellarium or SkySafari use your phone’s GPS to show you exactly what is in the sky in real-time. If you see something red, point your phone at it. The app will tell you if it’s the Moon, Mars, or just a stray satellite.
- Watch the Weather: Even when there is a blood moon, clouds are the enemy. Use an astronomy-specific weather app like Clear Outside or Astrospheric. They track "transparency" and "seeing" (atmospheric turbulence), not just whether it’s raining.
The moon is a constant, but its special shows are rare. Tonight might just be a regular old Tuesday night in the sky, but that’s okay. The moon is still roughly 238,855 miles away, keeping our tides moving and giving us something to look at while we walk the dog. Wait for March. That’s when the real show starts.