A near total lunar eclipse happens this week. Here’s when to look up in NC

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A near-total lunar eclipse will be viewable in North Carolina’s night sky this week.

“We are going to have a lunar eclipse because the full moon is going to pass into Earth’s shadow,” said Amy Sayle, the Science Education Specialist at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. “So the lineup will be sun, Earth, moon. It’s not a total lunar eclipse, but it’s a very deep partial lunar eclipse.”

“I would say, in my opinion, this is the last good lunar eclipse for North Carolina until 2029,” she said.

During a total lunar eclipse, the moon may appear red and coopery, but the colors may vary based on the space dust in the atmosphere, Sayle said. Some have called this a “blood moon.”

“Colors with shorter wavelengths ― the blues and violets ― scatter more easily than colors with longer wavelengths, like red and orange,” NASA states. “Because these longer wavelengths make it through Earth’s atmosphere, and the shorter wavelengths have scattered away, the Moon appears orangish or reddish during a lunar eclipse.”

At it’s peak, about 96% of the moon’s disk will be within the Earth’s umbra, the part of the shadow where the sun is completely blocked by the Earth.

The partial lunar eclipse can be seen from all areas of North Carolina on Thursday, Aug. 27 into Friday, Aug. 28, peaking at 12:12 a.m. Friday.

Here are the stages of the eclipse and when it will be visible in North Carolina, Sayle sad:

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse can be viewed with the naked eye and without special glasses or equipment.

“One little fun thing is that if anyone needs to prove to themselves they live on a round planet, they just need to go out during a lunar eclipse and observer the shape of the Earth shadow on the moon, and they’ll discover it’s curved,” Sayle said.

The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is hosting events for the lunar eclipse at its Chapel Hill location.

The first is a ticketed event, Carolina Skies: Lunar Eclipse show, that will simulate the eclipse in the planetarium and give viewers a tour of North Carolina’s night sky from 9:30 – 10:30 p.m. Free skywatching, weather permitting, will take place afterward from 10:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

Two Glenwood South bars, Hibernian Pub and Botanical Lounge, are also hosting events encouraging people to watch the eclipse with specially themed drinks.

The next lunar eclipses visible from North Carolina are both penumbral lunar eclipses, when the moon travels through Earth’s penumbra, which is the faint outer part of the planet’s shadow, and can be more difficult to see.

The penumbral lunar eclipse is on Feb. 20, 2027 and Aug. 17, 2027.

The next total lunar eclipse, when the moon is completely covered by the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, viewable from North Carolina is the night of June 25, 2029, into June 26, 2029.

The next partial solar eclipse is on Jan. 26, 2028.

This story was originally published August 25, 2026 at 11:41 AM with the headline “A near total lunar eclipse happens this week. Here’s when to look up in NC.”