Events · August 27, 2026
Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow Morning: Tonight's Checklist
Fondateur de SkyChart
Tomorrow morning, Friday 28 August, the Moon enters 96.61% into Earth's shadow. From Britain the whole thing plays out low on the western horizon and ends in the dawn. There is no second chance: the next lunar eclipse visible from Europe is a penumbral one on 20 February 2027, which is to say almost nothing to see.
| Time | What you will see | Moon's altitude |
|---|---|---|
| 03:33 | the first bite on the edge of the disc | 19.4° |
| 04:30 | the shadow has taken more than half | 13° |
| 05:12 | maximum, only a sliver left lit | 8.0° |
| 06:06 | sunrise, the sky is already blue | 2° |
| 06:15 | the Moon sets, the eclipse carries on without you | 0° |
What happens, in London local time
What to do tonight, while it is still light
- Go and scout your western horizon now, in daylight. Everything happens below 20°: a hedge, a building, a ridgeline is enough to cancel the lot. Look for a clear line of sight between west and west-south-west.
- Set an alarm for 03:15, not 05:00. The start of the partial phase is when the Moon is highest, and so easiest to see. By 05:12 it will already be very low.
- Dig out the binoculars and check tonight that they focus properly. At 8° of altitude in a brightening sky, they are the difference between « I think I can see something » and « I can see the shadow ».
- No eye protection is needed. A lunar eclipse is entirely safe to watch with the naked eye, unlike a solar eclipse.
- If your western horizon is blocked, moving a few miles west or to higher ground changes everything. That gets sorted tonight, not at three in the morning.
What you will actually see
Not a blood moon. The sliver left outside the shadow is in full sunlight, so it is dazzling, and it drowns the copper of the rest of the disc. The red tint of total eclipses only appears once that last per cent tips into shadow, and it will not.
What you will see is a Moon bitten into, further and further, in a sky that keeps brightening, and which finally drops below the horizon before the show is over. It is frustrating and it is beautiful, and it will not happen again at these latitudes for some time.
If you are reading this from North America, ignore everything above: the eclipse happens there before midnight on the 27th, with the Moon between 21° and 43° high in full darkness, and it runs from start to finish above the horizon.
This article was translated from the French edition by AI, then reviewed before publication. The times and altitudes are recomputed for London, not converted from the Paris edition.