If you missed the lunar eclipses of 2026, you are not alone. Plenty of people only think about eclipses when someone mentions one the day before it happens, and by then the clouds have rolled in or the Moon has already slipped back to normal. The good news is that the next one is already on the calendar, and you have months to get ready for it — though fair warning, this one will ask a bit more patience of you than the dramatic red Moons of 2026 did.
The short answer is simple: the next lunar eclipse happens on February 20, 2027. It will be a penumbral eclipse, which means the effect will be gentle rather than spectacular. If you know what to look for, and when to look, you will catch it. If you walk outside expecting a blood moon, you will probably walk back inside convinced nothing happened at all. That difference matters, and it is exactly what this guide is for.
The short answer: The next lunar eclipse is a penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20, 2027, peaking at about 23:12–23:13 UTC. It will be visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The Moon will only pass through Earth’s outer shadow, so expect a subtle dimming on one side of the Moon — not a red blood moon. The next total lunar eclipse, the next real blood moon, does not come until December 31, 2028.
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When Is the Next Lunar Eclipse?
The next lunar eclipse takes place on February 20, 2027. Mark the date now, because penumbral eclipses have a habit of passing unnoticed. There is no sudden darkness, no copper-red disc hanging in the sky, no moment where the Moon seems to vanish. Instead, the Moon drifts through the faint outer part of Earth’s shadow, and one edge of it grows slightly grey and dusky for a while before brightening again.
That subtlety is the whole story of this eclipse. It is a real lunar eclipse, counted as such by astronomers, and it is the next one after the two eclipses of 2026. But it belongs to the quiet end of the eclipse family. People who have only ever seen photographs of blood moons sometimes feel short-changed by a penumbral eclipse, and that is understandable. The trick is to go into it knowing what it is. A penumbral eclipse rewards a careful watcher — someone who looks at the Moon early in the evening, notes how bright and sharp it looks, and then checks again near the peak to see how one side has softened and dimmed.
If you are the kind of person who likes to plan a night around the sky, February 20, 2027 is worth putting in your diary. If you are hoping for a blood moon, though, you will need to wait considerably longer, and we will get to that date shortly.
What Kind of Eclipse Will It Be?
The February 20, 2027 eclipse is a penumbral lunar eclipse. That single word, penumbral, tells you almost everything you need to know about what you will see.
A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, and the Moon moves into Earth’s shadow. But Earth’s shadow is not one uniform patch of darkness. It has two parts: a dark central core called the umbra, and a much fainter outer fringe called the penumbra. When the Moon enters the umbra, things get dramatic — part or all of the Moon goes dark, and during a total eclipse it turns that famous deep red. When the Moon only enters the penumbra, the sunlight reaching it is merely reduced, not cut off, so the Moon dims slightly instead of changing colour.
On February 20, 2027, the Moon will pass through the penumbra only. It will not touch the umbra at all. That is why there will be no blood moon, no dark bite taken out of the Moon’s edge, and no period of totality. The visible change will be a gentle shading, strongest on the part of the Moon that dips deepest into the penumbra, and easiest to notice if you compare the Moon’s brightness before and during the peak.
Why penumbral eclipses are easy to miss
Most casual skywatchers miss penumbral eclipses entirely, and it is not because they are not looking. The human eye is very good at adjusting to gradual changes in brightness, so a slow dimming spread over an hour or more can slip past unnoticed. Photographs help enormously: take a picture of the Moon before the eclipse begins and another near the peak, and the difference suddenly becomes obvious.
A few practical tips make a real difference here. First, look at the Moon when it is high and the sky is dark, away from streetlights if you can manage it. Second, pay attention to the Moon’s edge rather than its centre — the shading is usually strongest along one limb. Third, give your eyes time. Step outside a few minutes early so your vision adapts to the dark before you start judging brightness.
Where Will the February 20, 2027 Eclipse Be Visible?
One of the kindest things about lunar eclipses, compared with solar eclipses, is how widely they can be seen. A solar eclipse is visible only along a narrow path, and missing it by a few dozen miles can mean missing it entirely. A lunar eclipse is visible from the whole night side of the Earth at once — everywhere the Moon is above the horizon while the eclipse is happening.
The February 20, 2027 penumbral eclipse will be visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. That is a huge stretch of the planet, covering most of the places people actually live. If you are in any of those regions and the Moon is up and your sky is clear that night, you are in the viewing zone.
That said, “visible from” does not mean “equally easy to see from everywhere.” The Moon’s height in the sky, the local time of the peak, and the weather on the night will all shape your experience. Someone watching from western Europe will see the eclipse at a different local time than someone watching from eastern Australia, and the Moon may sit high overhead for one observer and low near the horizon for another. The date is the same everywhere, but the local circumstances vary, so it is worth checking the exact local timing for your own location as February 2027 approaches.
What Time Will the Eclipse Peak?
The greatest point of the eclipse — the moment when the Moon is deepest in Earth’s penumbra and the dimming is at its strongest — falls at about 23:12–23:13 UTC on February 20, 2027.
UTC is the reference time astronomers use, and your local time will depend on your time zone. For viewers in the UK, that peak falls late in the evening. For viewers further east, it falls in the early hours of February 21, and for viewers in the Americas it falls during the evening of February 20. Do not let the time-zone shift confuse you: it is the same eclipse, the same moment, described on different clocks.
If you only step outside for one look, make it as close to the peak as you can. The dimming builds gradually, reaches its maximum around 23:12–23:13 UTC, and then slowly fades as the Moon drifts out of the penumbra. The minutes around the peak are when the shading is most noticeable, and when a before-and-after photograph will show the clearest contrast.
Why Is There No Total Lunar Eclipse in 2027?
This is the question that surprises most people when they first look at the eclipse calendar. After two lunar eclipses in 2026, including a total one, it feels natural to expect another dramatic eclipse in 2027. There is not one — at least, not a total one.
The reason comes down to geometry. A total lunar eclipse needs the Moon to pass through the central umbra of Earth’s shadow, and that only happens when the alignment of the Sun, Earth and Moon is precise enough. The Moon’s orbit is tilted slightly relative to Earth’s orbit around the Sun, so most full moons pass above or below Earth’s shadow entirely. Eclipses only happen when a full moon falls close to one of the two points where the Moon’s orbit crosses Earth’s orbital plane, and even then the Moon may only graze the penumbra, as it will in February 2027, rather than plunging into the umbra.
So 2027 gives us penumbral eclipses only and no total eclipse. The February event is the most noticeable of them; two more very faint penumbral eclipses follow on July 18 and August 17, 2027. That is not unusual. Eclipse years vary: some years bring two or three lunar eclipses with a total among them, others bring only a quiet penumbral event. The calendar is not a schedule anyone designed for drama; it is the result of orbital mechanics, and some years are simply quieter than others.
When Is the Next Blood Moon?
If the red Moon is what you are waiting for, here is the date to remember: the next total lunar eclipse — the next blood moon — happens on December 31, 2028.
That is a long wait from February 2027, nearly two years, but it should be worth it. A total lunar eclipse is the most striking kind there is. The Moon slides fully into Earth’s umbra, direct sunlight is blocked, and the only light reaching the Moon is sunlight filtered through Earth’s atmosphere. That filtering strips out most of the blue light and leaves the reds, which is why the eclipsed Moon glows copper or deep red instead of going black.
The December 31, 2028 total eclipse will be visible across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. A New Year’s Eve blood moon is a memorable way to close out a year, and because total lunar eclipses last far longer than the brief minutes of a total solar eclipse, you will have plenty of time to watch the colour deepen, reach its richest red, and then slowly fade as the Moon emerges from the shadow again.
Between now and then, the February 2027 penumbral eclipse is the most noticeable lunar eclipse on offer — two more very faint penumbral eclipses follow on July 18 and August 17, 2027. Think of it as a warm-up: a chance to practise watching the Moon carefully, to learn how the penumbra softens its light, and to get your timing and your camera settings sorted before the main event arrives in 2028.
What Happened During the 2026 Lunar Eclipses?
To put the 2027 eclipse in context, it helps to remember what 2026 delivered, because the contrast between those eclipses and the coming one explains a lot about why expectations need adjusting.
There were two lunar eclipses in 2026. The first, on March 3, 2026, was a total lunar eclipse, with totality lasting about 59 minutes. For nearly an hour, the Moon sat fully inside Earth’s umbra and glowed red — the full blood moon experience, visible to everyone on the night side of Earth at the time. The second, on August 28, 2026, was a partial lunar eclipse, with about 97% of the Moon’s disc covered by the umbra at maximum. That is about as close to total as a partial eclipse can get, with only a thin bright sliver of the Moon left outside the shadow.
Those two eclipses set a high bar. Both involved the umbra, both produced obvious, photographable changes, and both were the kind of event you could notice without being told to look carefully. The February 2027 eclipse involves only the penumbra, so it will not clear that bar. Knowing this in advance is genuinely useful: it stops you from waiting for a red Moon that is never going to appear, and it lets you appreciate the subtler event for what it is.
| Lunar eclipse | March 3, 2026 | Total | Blood moon; totality about 59 minutes |
| Lunar eclipse | August 28, 2026 | Partial | About 97% of the Moon in Earth’s umbra |
| Lunar eclipse | February 20, 2027 | Penumbral | Subtle dimming; no blood moon |
| Lunar eclipse | December 31, 2028 | Total | Next blood moon; visible across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific |
What Causes a Lunar Eclipse?
A lunar eclipse happens at full moon, when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon and casts its shadow onto the lunar surface. The order matters: Sun, then Earth, then Moon, all lined up closely enough that Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon instead of missing it.
At full moon, the Moon sits on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, so it is fully lit from our point of view. Normally, though, the Moon passes slightly above or below Earth’s shadow, because its orbit is tilted by about five degrees relative to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Only when a full moon happens near one of the two crossing points of those orbits — the nodes — does the Moon actually enter the shadow, and only then do we get an eclipse.
This is also why lunar eclipses do not happen every month. There is a full moon roughly every month, but most full moons miss the shadow entirely. The tilt of the Moon’s orbit is small, but over the distance between Earth and the Moon it is more than enough to let the Moon slip past above or below the shadow on most months of the year.
The two parts of Earth’s shadow
Earth’s shadow has two distinct regions, and the difference between them decides what kind of eclipse you get:
- The umbra is the dark central core of the shadow, where the Sun is completely hidden behind the Earth. A Moon in the umbra receives no direct sunlight.
- The penumbra is the fainter outer fringe, where the Sun is only partly hidden. A Moon in the penumbra still receives some direct sunlight, so it dims rather than darkening.
A total eclipse happens when the whole Moon enters the umbra. A partial eclipse happens when only part of the Moon enters the umbra. A penumbral eclipse happens when the Moon enters only the penumbra, as it will in February 2027.
What Are the Different Types of Lunar Eclipse?
There are three types of lunar eclipse, and they look very different from one another. If you have only ever heard the phrase “blood moon,” you might assume all lunar eclipses look alike. They do not, and the table below is the quickest way to keep them straight.
| Total lunar eclipse | The whole Moon passes into Earth’s umbra | The Moon turns copper-red — a blood moon — and stays that way through totality |
| Partial lunar eclipse | Part of the Moon passes into the umbra | A dark shadow creeps across part of the Moon while the rest stays bright |
| Penumbral lunar eclipse | The Moon passes only through the penumbra | A subtle grey dimming on part of the Moon, easy to miss |
Total eclipses are the crowd-pleasers, and understandably so. The red colour is strange and beautiful, and it lasts long enough to watch properly. Partial eclipses are nearly as striking, especially when the shadow covers most of the Moon — the August 2026 eclipse, at about 97%, would have looked almost total to a casual observer. Penumbral eclipses are the quiet ones. They are real eclipses, and astronomers count them, but they ask the viewer to pay attention in a way the other two types do not.
It is worth knowing which type you are watching before you go outside. Expecting a blood moon at a penumbral eclipse is a recipe for disappointment; knowing you are watching for a gentle shading turns the same evening into a small observational challenge, and a satisfying one when you spot it.
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How Can You Watch the Next Lunar Eclipse?
The best thing about lunar eclipses is how easy they are to watch. Unlike solar eclipses, which demand proper eye protection and can seriously damage your eyesight if you look at the Sun directly, lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch with the naked eye. You are looking at the Moon, not the Sun, and the Moon’s light is reflected sunlight at a comfortable brightness. No special glasses, filters or equipment are needed — though binoculars or a small telescope will show the shading more clearly if you have them.
Here is a simple plan for the night of February 20, 2027:
- Check the local time of the peak. The greatest eclipse is at about 23:12–23:13 UTC. Convert that to your own time zone and aim to be outside around then.
- Find a spot with a clear view of the Moon. You do not need a dark-sky site; a garden, a park or even a window with a good view will do. Just avoid bright lights shining directly into your eyes.
- Look at the Moon before the eclipse. Step out early, while the Moon is still at full brightness, and take a good look — or a photograph. This is your baseline.
- Look again near the peak. Compare what you see with your earlier view. The dimming is usually strongest on one side of the Moon’s disc.
- Take photographs. Even a phone camera held steady against a wall or a fence can capture the difference between the bright Moon and the dimmed Moon. Photos make the subtle change obvious in a way memory often does not.
- Be patient. The change is gradual. Give yourself at least half an hour of watching, and the shading will reveal itself far more clearly than a single quick glance ever could.
Clouds are the one thing you cannot control, and they are the most common reason people miss a lunar eclipse. If your sky is overcast on February 20, 2027, there is not much to do about it locally — but because this eclipse is visible across so many continents, clear skies somewhere are almost guaranteed, and livestreams and photographs from other locations will be widely shared.
Why Don’t Lunar Eclipses Happen Every Full Moon?
This is one of the most common questions in astronomy, and the answer is a matter of a few degrees. The Moon orbits Earth once a month, and each orbit includes a full moon, when the Moon is on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. If the Moon’s orbit lay exactly in the same plane as Earth’s orbit around the Sun, every full moon would be a lunar eclipse. But it does not.
The Moon’s orbit is tilted about five degrees relative to Earth’s orbital plane. That sounds tiny, and it is — but at the Moon’s distance from Earth, five degrees is enough for the Moon to pass above or below Earth’s shadow on most months. The shadow is not huge, and the Moon is not huge, and the two only line up when a full moon happens close to a node, one of the two points where the Moon’s orbit crosses Earth’s orbital plane.
Eclipses therefore come in seasons. For a few weeks at a time, the geometry is favourable and eclipses become possible; then the alignment drifts and months pass with no eclipse at all. That is why some years bring two or three lunar eclipses and other years bring only one quiet penumbral event like the one in February 2027.
Lunar Eclipse vs Solar Eclipse: What’s the Difference?
People often mix up lunar and solar eclipses, which is understandable — both involve the Sun, Earth and Moon lining up — but they are mirror images of one another, and the differences matter for anyone planning to watch.
A lunar eclipse happens at full moon, when Earth sits between the Sun and the Moon and Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon. A solar eclipse happens at new moon, when the Moon sits between the Sun and Earth and the Moon’s shadow falls on Earth. That single difference in position explains almost everything else.
Lunar eclipses are visible from the entire night side of Earth at once, last for hours, and are safe to watch with the naked eye. Solar eclipses are visible only along a narrow path on Earth’s surface, last minutes at most at totality, and require proper eye protection — looking directly at the Sun during a solar eclipse can cause permanent eye damage. Lunar eclipses turn the Moon red; solar eclipses turn day briefly to twilight and reveal the Sun’s corona.
If you remember only one thing, make it this: a lunar eclipse is the Earth’s shadow on the Moon, and a solar eclipse is the Moon’s shadow on the Earth. Once that clicks, the rest of the differences follow naturally.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the next lunar eclipse?
The next lunar eclipse is a penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20, 2027, peaking at about 23:12–23:13 UTC. It will be visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. It will be a subtle dimming of the Moon, not a blood moon.
Will the February 20, 2027 eclipse be a blood moon?
No. A blood moon only happens during a total lunar eclipse, when the whole Moon passes through Earth’s umbra. The February 2027 eclipse is penumbral, so the Moon will only dim slightly. The next blood moon is the total lunar eclipse on December 31, 2028.
Is there a total lunar eclipse in 2027?
No, there is no total lunar eclipse in 2027. The lunar eclipses of 2027 are all penumbral — February 20 is the most noticeable, with two much fainter ones on July 18 and August 17, 2027.
When is the next total lunar eclipse?
The next total lunar eclipse is on December 31, 2028. It will be visible across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific, and the Moon will turn red during totality.
Are lunar eclipses safe to watch with the naked eye?
Yes. Lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch without any eye protection. You are looking at the Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight at a comfortable brightness. This is very different from a solar eclipse, where looking at the Sun directly can damage your eyes.
What time is the February 20, 2027 eclipse at its peak?
The greatest eclipse falls at about 23:12–23:13 UTC on February 20, 2027. Your local time will depend on your time zone, so convert from UTC to your own clock before the night.
Where will the February 2027 lunar eclipse be visible?
It will be visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia — anywhere the Moon is above the horizon while the eclipse is happening, as long as the sky is clear.
Final Thoughts
The next lunar eclipse, on February 20, 2027, will not be the most dramatic eclipse you ever see. It will not turn the Moon red, it will not darken the sky, and if you are not paying attention you could easily miss it altogether. But that is not a reason to ignore it. Penumbral eclipses are a reminder that the clockwork of the solar system keeps turning whether or not it puts on a show, and that there is real pleasure in noticing a subtle change in something as familiar as the full Moon.
Go outside that night with the right expectations, look at the Moon before the eclipse and again near the peak at about 23:12–23:13 UTC, and you will see the shading for yourself. Then keep December 31, 2028 in your diary, because that is when the real spectacle returns — a total lunar eclipse, a blood moon, visible across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. The quiet eclipse of 2027 is the warm-up. The blood moon of 2028 is the main event.
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