Umbra
The darkest central shadow. Entering it produces totality.
Total Lunar Eclipse of December 20, 2029
Greatest eclipse 22:42 UTC. Check the local times for your own place below.
Local circumstances
Will you see it, and when?
Choose a place to see local times.
Pick a place above and this panel will show whether the eclipse is visible from there, and the local clock time of every phase.
Whole eclipse above the horizonMoon rises or sets during it
The phases of a lunar eclipse happen at the same instant everywhere on Earth. Those instants come from NASA's catalog (greatest eclipse in Terrestrial Time plus the published durations), converted to UTC with the published 78 s value of Delta-T. Only the Moon's position in your sky is computed here. Source: Five Millennium Catalog. Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC. Full method and limits in our methodology.
Total Lunar Eclipse of December 20, 2029
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Interactive orbit lab
See how a blood moon forms
Move time through this total event, then hover, focus, or tap any labeled object. The light direction and shadow order are physical; sizes and distances are compressed for clarity.
Sun → Earth → MoonPartial lunar phasePart of the Moon is crossing Earth's dark umbra.
Moon
At full moon, the Moon can pass through Earth's shadow. Air around Earth filters and bends red light into the umbra.
Hover, focus, or tap a body or shadow to inspect it.Total lunar eclipseThe closest approach is constrained to this cataloged event type.
Penumbra
Earth's lighter outer shadow surrounds the umbra and gently dims the Moon first.
Why not every month?
The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5.1°. An eclipse needs new or full moon near a node, where the two orbital planes cross.
During totality, Earth's atmosphere removes much of the blue light and bends filtered red light into the umbra, which can make the Moon look copper or red.
Key facts
| Type | Total lunar eclipse |
|---|---|
| Date | December 20, 2029 |
| Greatest eclipse | 22:42 UTC (the panel above shows your own local times) |
| Visible from | the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia |
| Saros series | 135 |
| Gamma | -0.3811(how far the shadow axis passes from Earth's centre, in Earth radii) |
| Umbral magnitude | 1.1174 of the Moon's diameter inside the dark shadow |
What you will see
The full Moon passes through Earth's umbral shadow and turns a deep copper red at maximum. The eclipse is visible, weather permitting, from anywhere the Moon is above the horizon across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch with the naked eye.
To follow the day and night line on the date of the eclipse, open the live globeand use its time scrubber: the eclipse happens along the Moon's shadow track through the daytime side (for a lunar eclipse, the night side watches the Moon).
Catalog data from NASA GSFC (Five Millennium Catalog of LunarEclipses), Terrestrial Time converted to UTC with the Delta-T value published for this eclipse. Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC. Lunar phases happen at the same instant worldwide; only the Moon's position in your sky is computed. How we compute this.