The Hiking Astronomer

Lunar Eclipse Thursday, August 27th!

Hey parents: as a former middle and high school science teacher, and elementary substitute, I give my stamp of approval let your kids stay up (or wake them up near the peak) to watch this lunar eclipse! Teachers LOVE when your kids get these experiences, as it’s valuable real-life observation of the natural world.

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Saturn returns in October! Read my telescope guide to choose the best telescope to view the ringed planet for yourself.

Eclipses always come in pairs

Whenever there is a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse follows two weeks later–and vice versa. So you heard all about the solar eclipse that took place over Iceland, Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea–now you get the chance to see a lunar eclipse on this side of the Atlantic!

If you’ve been visiting me in Spokane the past 10 days, I’ve been telling everyone who visits to come back Thursday August 27th by 8pm — or keep your eye out for the Moon wherever you are on that night.

East coast, midwest, west coast — we’re all going to see the eclipse. For eastern and central USians, the Moon will already be high in the sky when the eclipse begins, but for everyone more westerly, say, west of Arizona and Utah, the Moon will already be in the eclipse when it rises Thursday night.

The benefit of that is we get the eclipse early in the evening, whereas it will be middle of the night for the east coasters. But still worth watching! This eclipse is NOT total. It’s a 96% partial lunar eclipse; that is, a part of the Moon will stay out of Earth’s umbra, the darkest part of the shadow. This means the very top of the Moon will remain white, while the rest of it turns black and faintly red.

This eclipse will be very similar to the lunar eclipse of November 19, 2021, which I imaged from the parking lot of my apartment in Florida way back then:

Expect to see something like this (a little fainter and darker) in telescopes and binoculars

Times (updated from last week based on new orbital measurements put out):

EDT: 10:23pm start, 12:12am Aug 28th peak, 1:51am finish
CDT: 9:23pm start, 11:12pm peak, 12:51am Aug 28th finish
MDT: 8:23pm start, 10:12pm peak, 11:51pm finish
PDT/Arizona: 7:23pm start, 9:12pm peak, 10:51pm finish
- most PDT locations will need to wait for the Moon to rise; it will already be in shadow by the time you see it

Where I will be:

Find me either on the Howard Street Bridge (where you’ve met me in Spokane) OR closer to the Ice Age Playground, on the Howard Street Channel Bridge North. Same exact pathway, just opposite direction from downtown.

When you’re there, we’ll watch the shadow of Earth slowly cover the Moon from 8:15pm to 9:15pm, taking pictures through the telescope and learning about why these eclipses happen and how the Moon turns red at maximum. There’s an entire second half that ends closer to 10:15pm if you want to stay and watch that part as well!

Continue finding me every night at Riverfront Park in Spokane along the Howard Street Bridge now through August 31st, starting 6:30pm each night unless clouds interfere. I always say if I’m out on Instagram, so follow me there!

This world is beautiful.

Alex