August 27-28, 2026 Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse

  • Released Friday, August 21, 2026
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The Moon moves right to left through Earth's penumbra and umbra shadows. At various times, a copy of the Moon is left behind along with its associated UTC time, and this forms a lunar eclipse diagram showing different stages of the eclipse.

On August 28, 2026 (the evening of the 27th in some time zones), the Moon passes into the shadow of Earth, creating a deep partial eclipse. At the moment of greatest eclipse, 4:13 a.m. Universal Time, 96.3% percent of the Moon's disk is within Earth's umbra, the central part of the shadow where the Sun is completely blocked by Earth. This part of the eclipse is visible in the Americas (except Alaska and northwestern Canada), western Europe and western Africa.

The penumbra is the part of Earth's shadow where the Sun is only partially covered by Earth. The effect of the penumbra on the Moon's appearance is subtle. But after the partial phase begins, at 2:34 UTC (10:34 p.m. Eastern on the night of the 27th), the umbra's dramatic effect is easily visible as it takes an increasingly large bite out of the disk of the full Moon. Less than an hour later, the part of the Moon still in sunlight will be small enough for observers' eyes to adapt to darkness and perceive the coppery color of the part of the Moon within the umbra. The visualizations here mimic this dark adaptation by increasing the apparent photographic exposure around the time of greatest eclipse.

This eclipse is a member of Saros 138. The eclipses in a given saros series are separated by 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours. The previous eclipse in this saros series occurred on August 16, 2008, and the next takes place on September 7, 2044.

A still image of the eclipse diagram. The view is centered on Earth's shadow, with outlines of the umbra and penumbra. The Moon is rendered at five different times as it passes through the shadow from right to left.

A still image of the eclipse diagram.

A flat world map showing where the eclipse is visible at different phases. Contours mark the boundary around the part of Earth where each phase is visible. Gray areas outside the contours mark where the eclipse can't be seen.

A world map showing where the eclipse is visible at different phases. Contours mark the boundary around the part of Earth where each phase is visible. The start of the partial phase, for example, is visible everywhere within the orange contour. The map is centered on 63°8'W, the sublunar point at greatest eclipse (the longitude where the Moon is highest in the sky). The eclipse can't be seen in the gray areas outside the contours.

Credits

NASA's Scientific VIsualization Studio

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This page was originally published on Friday, August 21, 2026.
This page was last updated on Friday, August 21, 2026 at 1:31 PM EDT.