Northern Illinois May See An Eclipse And The Northern Lights

Northern Illinois might just be getting a celestial buy-one-get-one deal over the next couple of nights. A cosmic BOGO, if you will.

We already have a pretty spectacular reason to look up tonight because a deep partial lunar eclipse will put nearly the entire Moon into Earth’s shadow. And now, thanks to some very active behavior from the Sun, there’s a chance we could get a second show thrown in for free: the Northern Lights, or more properly, the Aurora Borealis.

The lunar eclipse gets underway Thursday night, with the Moon reaching maximum eclipse at about 11pm. Nearly 96% of the Moon will be covered by Earth’s shadow, making this one of the deepest partial lunar eclipses we’ve seen in years. The Moon can take on that familiar eerie reddish-orange appearance, which is why you’ll sometimes hear these events called a “blood moon.”

blood moon at night time

So, While You're Checking Out The Eclipse, Take A Look To The North

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a minor geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday, followed by a moderate G2 storm watch for Friday and Saturday. That’s because of solar activity, including coronal mass ejections (huge eruptions of charged material from the Sun) that are heading our way.

And that could potentially push the Aurora Borealis farther south than usual.

Now, before we start dragging lawn chairs into the backyard and declaring ourselves professional astronomers, there’s a pretty big “maybe” attached to all of this.

The forecast doesn’t guarantee that the Northern Lights will be visible from Northern Illinois. The Aurora forecast currently favors areas farther north, and it’s possible the geomagnetic storm simply won’t be strong enough to bring the lights all the way down to the Chicago and Rockford areas. But...it might.

A nearly blood-red Moon overhead, with the Northern Lights potentially dancing along the horizon?

That’s a buy-one-get-one celestial special I’m willing to stay up late for.