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Ephemeris: 08/25/2026 – Thursday’s lunar eclipse – and when eclipses can occur

August 25, 2026 Leave a comment

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 34 minutes, setting at 8:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:58. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:06 tomorrow morning.

This Thursday’s partial lunar eclipse will occur only 15 days after the last eclipse, a nibble of a solar eclipse for us, and a total eclipse for others on August 12th. Eclipses occur in seasons of about a month long that occur at a bit less than six month intervals, so eclipses will occur a little earlier next year to this. That’s because the crossing points of the Moon’s and the Earth’s orbital planes regress slowly westward. In an eclipse season two eclipses will occur: a solar and a lunar eclipse. On rare occasions when a lunar eclipse occurs in the center of a season a partial solar eclipse can occur two weeks before and again after the lunar eclipse, but they will affect the opposite polar regions of the Earth. For Thursday night, the partial eclipse will start at 10:34 PM. Maximum eclipse occurs at 12:13 AM, and will end at 1:52 AM.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Why there are eclipse seasons, and why they move progressively earlier each year.
Why there are eclipse seasons, and why they move progressively earlier each year. Since the sun has to be within 17 º of a node to be within an eclipse season, and the sun travels about 1º a day, an eclipse season lasts about 34 days, a bit longer than a lunar month of 29½ days. So two eclipses will occur, and possibly three. Whether any are visible depends on one’s location.
Preview of the partial lunar eclipse on the night of August 27-28 2026.
Preview of the partial lunar eclipse on the night of August 27-28 2026. The orientation of the moon and earth’s shadow is that for the naked-eye or binoculars. The motion of the moon in the sky during the eclipse is east to west (left to right) due to the earth’s rotation. However, the moon’s motion against the stars and with the earth’s shadow is west to east (right to left). The times are for the beginning maximum and end of the partial phase. EDT is 4 hours brhind Universal Time. Created using Stellarium.
Categories: Concepts, Eclipses, Ephemeris Program, Lunar Eclipse Tags: ,