Lunar – 28 August 2026

A partial lunar eclipse will be seen from all of Africa on the night of 27-28 August 2026. The maximum obscuration by the Earth’s shadow is 96.2% of the Moon’s area, and hence no place on Earth will experience totality. This is a late night eclipse, starting an hour and a half after midnight for western Africa, while starting in the early hours of the morning for eastern parts of the continent.

The Western part of Africa can see the entire partial (umbral) eclipse, which lasts for 3 hours and 18 minutes. The more you go eastwards, you will see less and less of the partial eclipse phase since the Moon will set before the end of the eclipse. The total duration of the umbral partial phase goes from around 3 hrs 10 minutes around Ghana to just around 30 minutes around Madagascar. Mauritius and the eastern most part of Somalia will see only the penumbral eclipse.

Note that, unlike a solar eclipse whose timing depends significantly on the location, a lunar eclipse starts and ends at the same time from all locations on Earth. Since this is a lunar eclipse, the Moon is exactly opposite the Sun in the sky. Hence, due to the Earth’s curvature, it is around 1.5 hrs after midnight for western most parts of Africa when the partial eclipse begins, and hence these places can see the entire eclipse before the Moon sets at sunrise. However, for eastern Africa, it is already early hours of the morning when the eclipse starts, and hence the Moon will set at sunrise before the eclipse ends.

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