Total lunar eclipse — New Year blood moon

On the last night of 2028 the Moon turns red — maximum eclipse around 1 a.m. on New Year's Day in East Asia.

📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser

bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight

See it in my sky at that moment ▶ Replay the moment in orbit ▶

The moment of Total lunar eclipse — New Year blood moon: https://nowsky.org/e/lunar-eclipse-2028 — opens at the right place and time, replayable, no login.

Available views: Orbit ✓ · Sky ✓

The story

On the last night of 2028 the full Moon slides into Earth's shadow. A total lunar eclipse happens when Sun, Earth and Moon line up in that order, and this time Europe, Africa and Asia are on the side of the planet facing the event.

A fully shadowed Moon does not disappear; it turns red. Earth's atmosphere refracts sunlight and bends it into the shadow, scattering away the shorter blue wavelengths and leaving the red to arrive. Standing on the lunar surface you would see the dark disk of Earth ringed by every sunrise and sunset on the planet at once, a thin band of copper light all the way around.

From Korea totality falls across the turn of the year. The eclipse begins on the evening of 31 December and continues past midnight, so the first sky of the new year is a red one. The Moon rides high near midnight, which keeps it clear of buildings and hills, and dry winter air tends to sharpen the contrast between the shadowed and sunlit parts of the disk.

Totality runs a little over an hour, which is generous. There is no need to hurry, and because the Moon does not pass exactly through the centre of the shadow, one limb stays noticeably brighter than the other throughout — a gradient you can watch shift slowly. Set the sky view to Seoul to preview the sky of that night.

Why it matters

A lunar eclipse is an experiment on Earth's atmosphere, run from the outside. Every photon reaching the Moon during totality has passed through our air, so the colour and brightness of the eclipsed Moon record the state of that air. Eclipses following major volcanic eruptions are visibly darker, because stratospheric aerosol blocks the refracted light, and the Danjon scale — observers rating the eclipse from 0 to 4 — is the long-running record of those differences.

The same principle connects directly to exoplanet work. Transmission spectroscopy reads starlight that has filtered through a planet's atmosphere to identify what that atmosphere contains, and eclipsed moonlight is the Earth version of exactly that geometry. Researchers have taken spectra of the eclipsed Moon and recovered the ozone and oxygen signatures of our own atmosphere, which tells astronomers what to look for when hunting the same signs on worlds around other stars.

Historically, lunar eclipses supplied the oldest good evidence that Earth is round. Aristotle argued for a spherical Earth from the observation that the shadow it casts on the Moon always has a circular edge, whatever the orientation. Only a sphere casts a round shadow from every direction, and that conclusion was reached by watching the sky carefully, centuries before any telescope existed.

How to watch

A lunar eclipse needs no equipment, and it is completely safe to watch with the unaided eye. Unlike a solar eclipse it requires no filters and no protective glasses of any kind, because what you are looking at is moonlight — a faint reflection of sunlight, no brighter than an ordinary full moon and dimmer still once the shadow arrives. You simply look up. Binoculars bring out the gradations of red and the softness of the shadow's edge, and a camera on a tripod handles it easily.

The visible area is enormous. A lunar eclipse looks the same and happens at the same instant for everyone who can see the Moon at all, so most of Europe, Africa and Asia will catch all or much of this one. From Korea it runs from the evening of 31 December into the first hours of the new year. There is no narrow path to chase, which is the great practical advantage a lunar eclipse has over a solar one.

Two things actually decide how the night goes: the weather and how warmly you dress. You will be standing outside past midnight in midwinter for well over an hour, so gloves and something hot to drink are worth more than any optical accessory. City lights barely interfere with a lunar eclipse, so there is no need to drive out of town. The sky-view replay on this page shows the sky at the shadow entry and exit times for Seoul.

See this for yourself — open that sky at that moment · replay the moment in the orbit view

Background

Because lunar eclipses can be predicted, they have occasionally changed history. The best-known case is Columbus, stranded in Jamaica in 1504, who consulted an almanac, announced that the Moon would be taken away, and secured supplies from the local people when it duly darkened. It is a story about astronomy as leverage, and also evidence that eclipse prediction was already accurate centuries before modern instruments.

Ancient astronomers found the saros cycle by collecting eclipse records. The rhythm of 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours, after which Sun, Earth and Moon return to nearly the same geometry, first emerged from Babylonian observations of the Moon entering shadow, and it is still the framework used to sort eclipses into families today. The habit of tabulating events in the sky essentially begins here.

The next chances are not far off. A total lunar eclipse well placed for the Americas comes on 26 June 2029, and another follows in 2032. Any given location sees a total lunar eclipse every few years on average, which makes it one of the few major astronomical events most people can expect to witness many times in a lifetime.

FAQ

Is it safe to look at with the naked eye?

Completely safe. You are looking at moonlight, so no protective equipment is needed at any stage; eclipse glasses or solar filters would simply black out the view. Binoculars and telescopes are safe too, and they make the gradations of red across the disk much easier to see.

When is it visible from Korea?

The eclipse begins on the evening of 31 December and continues into the first hours of the new year, with totality falling after midnight — the year's first sky event. For minute-by-minute timings, check your national observatory's published circumstances closer to the date.

Why does the Moon turn red?

Earth's atmosphere refracts sunlight into the shadow, and along the way blue light scatters out while red gets through — the same physics that reddens a sunset. The eclipsed Moon is therefore lit by the combined colour of every sunrise and sunset happening on Earth at that moment.

How long does this eclipse last?

Totality runs a little over an hour, and the whole sequence including the partial phases stretches across several hours. That is the contrast with a solar eclipse, where totality lasts minutes at most: a lunar eclipse unfolds slowly enough to watch at leisure, step away from, and come back to.

→ More sky news

Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.