The Short Answer
Between February 2027 and December 2030 there are ten lunar eclipses: three total, three partial and four penumbral. Whether you see one depends on a single thing: is the Moon above your horizon while it happens? We checked every eclipse for nine cities, one for each language of this site.
The three total eclipses, the ones that turn the Moon red, are the ones to plan for:
- 31 December 2028, evening. The whole eclipse is visible from Istanbul to Jakarta, with totality lasting about 72 minutes. London sees all of totality too, but the Moon rises already in eclipse, so it misses the start.
- 26 June 2029, before dawn. The longest totality of the decade, about 1 hour 42 minutes, but the Moon is setting in the Middle East and has already set further east. London sees most of totality; Mecca, Cairo and Istanbul catch only its beginning low in the west; from Tehran to Jakarta nothing.
- 20 December 2029, late at night. The whole eclipse is visible from London to Dhaka, with about 55 minutes of totality. Kuala Lumpur sees all of totality, and Jakarta part of it before the Moon sets.
Why Place Matters but Distance Does Not
A solar eclipse is a shadow on the ground: it is total along a narrow path and partial or invisible elsewhere. A lunar eclipse is the Earth's shadow on the Moon, so it looks the same from everywhere the Moon is up: the same red, the same bite, at the same instant. More than half of the world sees at least part of each one. What changes from city to city is only whether the Moon is above the horizon during the eclipse, and how high.
That is why the tables below give the time of greatest eclipse once, in UTC, and then simply say how much of it each city sees.
The Ten Eclipses
Times are greatest eclipse in UTC. Durations of the partial and total phases are from NASA's eclipse catalogue (F. Espenak); those of the faint penumbral eclipses are from this site's engine. The Hijri date is the Umm al-Qura date of the civil day in Mecca.
| Date (UTC) | Type | Greatest eclipse | Duration | Hijri date | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb 2027 | Penumbral (deep) | 23:13 | about 4 h faint shading | 14 Ramadan 1448 | All of it from London to Karachi; part from Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta |
| 18 Jul 2027 | Penumbral (very slight) | 16:03 | 25 min | 14 Safar 1449 | All of it from Karachi to Jakarta; part from Mecca and Tehran |
| 17 Aug 2027 | Penumbral | 07:14 | about 3 h 40 min | 15 Rabi al-Awwal 1449 | None of the nine cities |
| 12 Jan 2028 | Partial (small) | 04:13 | 56 min | 15 Sha'ban 1449 | All of it from London, Istanbul and Cairo; part from Mecca and Tehran |
| 6 Jul 2028 | Partial | 18:20 | 2 h 21 min | 13 Safar 1450 | All of it from Cairo to Jakarta; most from Istanbul; not London |
| 31 Dec 2028 | Total | 16:52 | totality 1 h 11 min | 15 Sha'ban 1450 | All of it from Istanbul to Jakarta; London from moonrise, with all of totality |
| 26 Jun 2029 | Total | 03:22 | totality 1 h 42 min | 14 Safar 1451 | Part of it from London to Mecca; not from Tehran eastwards |
| 20 Dec 2029 | Total | 22:42 | totality 54 min | 15 Sha'ban 1451 | All of it from London to Dhaka; part from Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta |
| 15 Jun 2030 | Partial | 18:33 | 2 h 24 min | 14 Safar 1452 | All of it from Cairo to Jakarta; most from Istanbul; not London |
| 9 Dec 2030 | Penumbral | 22:28 | about 4 h 40 min faint shading | 15 Sha'ban 1452 | All of it from London to Karachi; part from Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta |
The grid shows the same thing city by city. Each cell is filled in proportion to the share of the eclipse with the Moon above the horizon.
Local Times for the Three Total Eclipses
31 December 2028, greatest eclipse at 16:52 UTC: 19:52 in Mecca and Istanbul, 18:52 in Cairo, 20:22 in Tehran, 21:52 in Karachi, 22:52 in Dhaka, 23:52 in Jakarta and 00:52 on 1 January in Kuala Lumpur. It is an early-evening eclipse in the Middle East with the Moon well up, and a midnight eclipse in South East Asia with the Moon high. In London it is 16:52, just after moonrise, so the Moon comes up already deep in eclipse. See the eclipse page for 31 December 2028.
26 June 2029, greatest eclipse at 03:22 UTC: 04:22 in London and 06:22 in Mecca, Cairo and Istanbul. This is the deepest eclipse of the period, with the Moon passing almost through the centre of the Earth's shadow, but in our cities it happens around dawn. London sees about three quarters of totality low in the south-west before moonset; Cairo about a quarter; Mecca about ten minutes and Istanbul about four before the Moon sets. See the eclipse page for 26 June 2029.
20 December 2029, greatest eclipse at 22:42 UTC: 22:42 in London, 01:42 on 21 December in Mecca and Istanbul, 00:42 in Cairo, 03:42 in Karachi and 04:42 in Dhaka. The whole eclipse is visible from London to Dhaka. In Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta it falls before dawn: Kuala Lumpur sees all of totality, Jakarta a little under half of it before the Moon sets. See the eclipse page for 20 December 2029.
What the Penumbral Ones Look Like
In a penumbral eclipse the Moon passes only through the outer part of the Earth's shadow, where the Sun is partly blocked. The Moon dims slightly, mostly on one edge, and many people do not notice. The best of the four is 20 February 2027: it misses being a partial eclipse by very little (NASA gives an umbral magnitude of minus 0.06), so near the middle one edge of the Moon looks clearly shaded. On Mecca's calendar it falls on 14 Ramadan 1448.
Why Every Lunar Eclipse Is in the Middle of a Hijri Month
A lunar eclipse can only happen at full moon, when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. In a lunar calendar the full moon falls near the middle of the month, so every eclipse in the table lands on the 13th, 14th or 15th. Solar eclipses are the mirror image: they come at new moon, at the very end of the month, as explained in why solar eclipses fall on the 29th. Lunar eclipses also come paired with solar ones about two weeks away, as described in why eclipses come in pairs.
Two of the three total eclipses fall in the middle of Sha'ban, on 15 Sha'ban 1450 and 15 Sha'ban 1451 by Mecca's civil date. The total eclipse of 31 December 2028 is also a "blue moon" by most of the world's calendars: the second full moon of December. See supermoon, blue moon, micromoon.
How to Watch
- No eye protection is needed. A lunar eclipse is safe to look at, with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
- Check the Moon's height. When an eclipse is visible only in part, it is because the Moon is rising or setting during it. Find a place with a clear, low horizon in that direction: east in the evening, west before dawn.
- Totality is the show. During totality the Moon turns copper or dark red, lit only by sunlight bent through the Earth's atmosphere. How dark it gets depends on the atmosphere at the time, and cannot be predicted exactly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 31 December 2028 eclipse visible in my city?
If you are anywhere from eastern Europe and Africa to South East Asia and Australia, very likely: the Moon is up there for the whole eclipse. In western Europe the Moon rises during it; in the Americas it is daytime. The eclipse page gives the circumstances for many more cities.
Why does the 26 June 2029 eclipse last so long but show so little?
Because it is very central: the Moon passes almost through the middle of the Earth's shadow, so totality is long. But it happens at 03:22 UTC, which is around dawn across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, so the Moon is setting. Most of the Americas see it well.
Do all of these eclipses fall on the same Hijri date everywhere?
Not quite. The Hijri date depends on the calendar used and on where you are, because the eclipse happens at one instant and that instant can fall on different civil days in different time zones. The table uses the Umm al-Qura calendar and the civil date in Mecca.
How accurate are the times?
The greatest-eclipse times in the table are within a minute of NASA's catalogue. Durations are NASA's; the engine on this site gives the same to within one or two minutes.
See Also
- Why eclipses come in pairs
- Why a solar eclipse falls on the 29th
- Supermoon, blue moon, micromoon
- Total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027 over Mecca
- The eclipses page, for every eclipse and your own location.
References
- Espenak, F. Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses, 2021 to 2030. NASA, eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.
- The city visibility in this post is computed by
packages/astronomy/src/lunarEclipseCities.tsin the Hilal Vision source, and pinned against NASA's catalogue by its tests.