Lunar eclipses, 2026 and 2027
A lunar eclipse happens when the full moon passes through Earth's shadow. Unlike a solar eclipse, it is visible from the entire night side of Earth at once, no glasses required. Times below are the instant of greatest eclipse, in UTC.
| Greatest eclipse (UTC) | Type | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| March 3, 2026, 11:32 UTC | Total lunar eclipse | 1.15 |
| August 28, 2026, 04:15 UTC | Partial lunar eclipse | 0.93 |
| February 20, 2027, 23:11 UTC | Penumbral lunar eclipse | 0.92 |
| August 17, 2027, 07:15 UTC | Penumbral lunar eclipse | 0.54 |
What the types mean
Total: the whole moon enters the umbra, Earth's dark inner shadow, and turns a deep copper red for up to an hour or more. The color is every sunrise and sunset on Earth, bent onto the moon by our atmosphere. The total eclipse of March 3, 2026 is the one to plan for.
Partial: only part of the moon enters the umbra, so a dark bite grows across the disc and recedes. The partial eclipse of August 28, 2026 covers most of the moon.
Penumbral: the moon crosses only the pale outer shadow. The dimming is subtle, often hard to notice by eye. Both of 2027's lunar eclipses are penumbral, which makes 2026 the better year for eclipse watchers.
Magnitude is the fraction of the moon's diameter covered by the shadow at greatest eclipse; 1.0 or more means fully covered.
For the record, the same two years also carry 4 solar eclipses, including the total solar eclipse of August 12, 2026 and the long total eclipse of August 2, 2027. Whether any eclipse is visible from your location depends on where you are; the Gibbous app draws each lunar eclipse's visibility on a map for your exact sky.
Will you see it from home?
Gibbous shows each eclipse's visibility for your location and sends a quiet heads-up before it begins.
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