Lunar eclipses of 2028: two partial ones and a total on 31 December, and what Spain will see

According to NASA’s tables, 2028 brings three lunar eclipses: two partial ones, on 12 January and 6 July, and a total one on 31 December, with 1 h 11 min of totality. From Spain they won’t look the same. The January one can be seen in full, in the small hours, although the Earth’s shadow barely nibbles the edge of the Moon. The July one arrives as the Moon is rising, when the partial phase has already ended over almost all of the peninsula. December’s is the good one: the Moon rises in the east at dusk, already eclipsed. None of the three needs glasses.

The three, in a table

The times are in Universal Time (UT), as NASA gives them on each eclipse’s page. For mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, add one hour in January and December, and two in July. For the Canary Islands, the same time in winter and one hour more in July.

In its table for the decade, NASA gives these visibility zones: January’s, the Americas, Europe and Africa; July’s, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia; December’s, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Europe appears in all three, but what can be seen from here depends on whether the Moon is above the horizon, and that is shown on the map NASA publishes with each eclipse.

12 January: a nibble in the small hours

It is a very small partial eclipse: umbral magnitude 0.066. The darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, the umbra, only covers a nibble of the Moon’s edge. The partial phase lasts 56 minutes, from 03:45:00 to 04:41:00 UT, with maximum at 04:12:56.7 UT. On the mainland, add an hour: the small hours, with the full Moon still in the sky.

On NASA’s visibility map, the whole of Spain lies in the zone where the eclipse can be seen from start to finish. Fred Espenak, the author of these tables, explains on his website EclipseWise that the part of the Moon inside the umbra usually looks very dark, almost black, like a bite. Around it, the penumbra will cover the whole Moon (penumbral magnitude 1.0468) and, according to Espenak, from 0.6 upwards an experienced observer can already notice a slight shading.

Two weeks later, on 26 January, comes the annular solar eclipse, which will be visible in Spain. That one has no moment at all without glasses: we cover it in our learn section and in total, annular and hybrid eclipses.

6 July: little or nothing from Spain

It is a deeper partial eclipse, with umbral magnitude 0.389 and 2 h 21 min of partial phase: from 17:08:51 to 19:30:21 UT, with maximum at 18:19:40.5 UT. From Spain, the problem is the time: in July Spanish clocks are two hours ahead of UT, so the end of the partial phase falls at half past nine in the evening, and by then the full Moon is still rising or about to rise.

On NASA’s map, the peninsula lies in the zone where the Moon rises with the eclipse already under way. The line marking the end of the partial phase runs right along the Mediterranean coast. West of it, which means almost the whole peninsula, the Moon rises when the partial phase has already ended and only the penumbra is left: a faint shading that is hard to make out, all the more so with the Moon low on the horizon. The Balearic Islands lie on the other side of the line, and there the Moon rises as the partial phase is ending. According to English Wikipedia, the eclipse will be seen rising over Europe and in full over eastern Africa, Asia, Antarctica and Australia.

31 December: the Moon rises red

The total eclipse of 2028 has an umbral magnitude of 1.246. Totality, from 16:16:19 to 17:27:40 UT, lasts 1 h 11 min. The whole partial phase runs from 15:07:35 to 18:36:24 UT, with maximum at 16:51:58.2 UT.

On NASA’s map, the peninsula lies between the line for the start of totality, which crosses the far north-east, and the line for the end, which runs close to the coast of Portugal. Over almost all of Spain, then, the Moon rises in the east at dusk already in full totality, and the further west you are, the less totality is left when it appears. The Canary Islands lie west of that second line: there the Moon rises after totality has ended, in the final partial phase. English Wikipedia sums it up by saying the eclipse will be seen rising over Africa and Europe, and in full over eastern Europe, Asia and Australia.

The colour varies from one eclipse to another. Espenak explains that the Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue and green light and lets the red through, and that the brightness of the eclipsed Moon is measured on the Danjon scale, from an almost invisible Moon to a very bright copper or orange one.

No glasses, just your eyes

All three can be watched with nothing at all. According to NASA, all phases of a lunar eclipse can be viewed with the naked eye and through a telescope with no filter. Why it’s the other way round with the Sun is explained in solar and lunar eclipses, and the three lunar eclipses of 2027, all penumbral, are in the eclipses of 2027.

Eclipse glasses will be needed on 2 August 2027 and for the annular eclipse of January 2028. How to store them so they stay usable is in do eclipse glasses expire? (in Spanish).

Sources: Lunar Eclipses: 2021 - 2030 — NASA, Fred Espenak (the three eclipses of 2028, their type, umbral magnitude, length of the phases and visibility zone); NASA’s page for each eclipse, with the times in UT and the visibility map: Partial Lunar Eclipse of 2028 Jan 12, Partial Lunar Eclipse of 2028 Jul 06 and Total Lunar Eclipse of 2028 Dec 31; July 2028 lunar eclipse — Wikipedia and December 2028 lunar eclipse — Wikipedia (where they will be seen in full and where rising); Visual Appearance of Lunar Eclipses — EclipseWise, Fred Espenak (the dark bite of the umbra, the 0.6 threshold for noticing the penumbra, the colour and the Danjon scale); Total Lunar Eclipse: Telescopic View — NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (all phases can be watched with the naked eye and through a telescope with no filter).