Enjoy total lunar eclipse on March 3 because it will be the last one for a long time.
Observers across eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific and western North America will see the Martian full moon – known as the “worm moon” – pass through Earth’s shadow, turning a reddish copper color for 58 mesmerizing minutes. But when the moon emerges from Earth’s umbra — the deepest part of Earth’s shadow — there won’t be another total lunar eclipse for nearly three years. A lunar break will begin and will not end until an orderly timed total lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve 2028-2029. Here’s why – and why 2029 will be a year that marks the end of not just one drought, but three spectacular ones”blood moon“Total Lunar Eclipses.
Lunar eclipses: total vs. partial vs. penumbral
ONE lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes through the earth’s ever-present shadow. A cone-like shadow extending from the night side of the planet, it has two parts: a brighter outer penumbra and a darker central umbra. That’s because the Sun is bigger than the Earth, so the Earth blocks the light in different ways.
Total Lunar Eclipse: when whole the moon passes through the umbra, cutting off all direct sunlight from reaching the moon’s surface. The only light that can reach it is filtered through Earth’s atmospherewhich scatter short wavelengths of light and bend longer red wavelengths inwards. The result is the “blood moon”.
Partial lunar eclipse: when part of the moon passes through the umbra, cutting off all direct sunlight from reaching any of the moon’s surface. The result is the sight of Earth’s shadow moving across the full moon, turning some of it a dull gray.
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: when neither moon passes through the umbra, only the outer penumbra, causing the moon to lose some of its brightness.
A total lunar eclipse includes all of these phases: penumbral, partial, and total, a process that can take about five hours.
March 3 total lunar eclipse
The total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026 will see the Moon spend 58 minutes and 18 seconds deep inside the Earth’s umbra. It has an umbral size of about 1.15, means that the moon only passes full within the earth’s shadow. Total lunar eclipses with sizes just a little above 1 tends to appear lighter copper or reddish in tone rather than a very dark crimson, because the moon does not move deeply through the shadow.
It’s just a detail; this total lunar eclipse is sure to be a dramatic event, turning a night sky bleached blue by the full “worm moon” into a very dark sky, with stars appearing all around full moon. The entire event, including the long sub-phases before and after totality, will last five hours and 38 minutes.
After March 3, the moon will not fully enter the Earth’s umbra again until the very end of 2028.
Why will total lunar eclipses disappear for a few years?
The non-totality gap after March 2026 is not unusual. Total lunar eclipses require precise adjustments, far more so than partial or penumbral events. That’s because the moon’s orbit is tilted by about five degrees relative to the Earth’s orbit the sunwhich means most full moons pass above or below Earth’s shadow – the reason there isn’t an eclipse every month. In fact, lunar eclipses can only occur during eclipse times, brief windows about six months apart when the Sun is near one of the Moon’s orbital nodes. But even then, the whole is not guaranteed.
During many eclipse seasons, the Moon skims only the Earth’s penumbra and umbra. Partial eclipses — when some of the full moon enters the umbra — can be striking events, but at no time does the lunar surface appear reddish. Penumbral eclipses are even more subtle, with the lunar surface merely dull. Compared to a total lunar eclipse, partial and penumbral events lack the drama of totality.
What happens to lunar eclipses after March 2026?
After March 3, 2026, there will be no occasions when the Moon is completely immersed in the Earth’s umbra for 34 months. Eclipse seasons continue, and lunar eclipses still occur, but none will be total. Here’s the sequence of partial and penumbral events you can expect from 2026 to 2028.
- August 28, 2026 — deep partial lunar eclipse (93% of the Moon enters the umbra)
- February 20, 2027 — penumbral lunar eclipse
- July 18, 2027 – penumbral lunar eclipse
- August 17, 2027 – penumbral lunar eclipse
- January 12, 2028 – partial lunar eclipse
- July 6, 2028 – partial lunar eclipse (39% of the Moon enters the umbra)
When total lunar eclipses return
The drought finally ends at the end of 2028, when the slow westward drift of the Moon’s orbital nodes brings full Moons back into deeper alignment with Earth’s shadow. What follows will be a tetrad of three total lunar eclipses during a 12-month period.
- December 31, 2028 – total lunar eclipse (total for 71 minutes as seen from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada and Alaska).
- June 26, 2029 – total lunar eclipse (total for 102 minutes as seen from America, Western Europe and Africa).
- December 20, 2029 – total lunar eclipse (total for 54 minutes as seen from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia).
Total lunar eclipses are not rare, but they are episodic, appearing in clusters when the geometry lines up. Are these evening events worth traveling the world to see? Perhaps not – especially compared to the geographically much more limited total solar eclipses – but a place can go many years without one. One thing is certain about total lunar eclipses: every skywatcher should always know when and where the next one is.
