Near-Total Lunar Eclipse to Mask 96% of the Moon This Week, With the Americas Best Placed

The Americas will have a front-row view of a near-total lunar eclipse this Thursday night into Friday, with Earth's shadow set to mask about 96% of the moon's surface, an especially deep partial eclipse. It comes two weeks after a total solar eclipse crossed Greenland, Iceland and Spain, making this the second act of a paired set of eclipses.

Eclipses always come in pairs because the sun, moon and Earth periodically align so precisely that one obscures the other. That alignment is possible because the moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun, which is roughly 400 times farther away, making the two appear the same size in the sky.

The eclipse will be visible to billions across North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, weather permitting. As Earth passes between the moon and the sun, it will cast a reddish-orange shadow onto the moon; because this is a partial eclipse, it will not be a true blood moon. The partial phase will last more than three hours, while the full eclipse will stretch about five and a half hours, peaking just after midnight EDT.

Nearly 1 billion people in the U.S., Canada, and Central and South America will have front-row views for the entire eclipse, and more than 3 billion people, 44% of the world's population, will be positioned to catch at least part of it. The moon will be setting as the eclipse unfolds in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, cutting the show short there, while it will be rising in Hawaii, giving viewers in the eastern Pacific and the northwestern U.S. and Canada a late start.

The eclipse follows NASA's Artemis II mission, which sent astronauts on a record-breaking lunar flyby in April ahead of a planned crewed landing and lunar base. 'This is a great time to be part of the space program, right? We're not slowing down,' NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway told The Associated Press from the International Space Station. This is the year's second lunar eclipse and fourth eclipse overall; the next total lunar eclipse will not occur until New Year's Eve 2028, and the Americas will not see another full lunar eclipse until 2029.