March 2026 lunar eclipse - Misplaced Pages

Total lunar eclipse of 2 March 2026

March 2026 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse

The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left

Date

March 3, 2026

Gamma

−0.3765

Magnitude

1.1526

Saros cycle

133 (27 of 71)

Totality

58 minutes, 19 seconds

Partiality

207 minutes, 10 seconds

Penumbral

338 minutes, 37 seconds

Contacts (UTC)
P1	8:44:22
U1	9:50:00
U2	11:04:26
Greatest	11:33:37
U3	12:02:45
U4	13:17:10
P4	14:22:59

← September 2025 August 2026 →

A total lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, with an umbral magnitude of 1.1526. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. The Moon's apparent diameter will be near the average diameter because it will occur 6.7 days after perigee (on February 24, 2026, at 18:15 UTC) and 6.9 days before apogee (on March 10, 2026, at 9:45 UTC).

This lunar eclipse will be the third of an almost tetrad, with the others being on March 14, 2025 (total); September 8, 2025 (total); and August 28, 2026 (partial).

Visibility

The eclipse will be completely visible over northeast Asia, northwestern North America, and the central Pacific Ocean, seen rising over much of Asia and Australia and setting over North and South America.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

March 3, 2026 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	2.18580
Umbral Magnitude	1.15263
Gamma	−0.37651
Sun Right Ascension	22h56m56.0s
Sun Declination	-06°43'06.4"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'08.0"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	10h56m15.0s
Moon Declination	+06°24'05.3"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'37.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°57'18.7"
ΔT	72.1 s

Eclipse season

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 2024–2027

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The penumbral lunar eclipse on July 18, 2027 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2024 to 2027
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
113	2024 Mar 25	Penumbral	1.0610	118	2024 Sep 18	Partial	−0.9792
123	2025 Mar 14	Total	0.3485	128	2025 Sep 07	Total	−0.2752
133	2026 Mar 03	Total	−0.3765	138	2026 Aug 28	Partial	0.4964
143	2027 Feb 20	Penumbral	−1.0480	148	2027 Aug 17	Penumbral	1.2797

Saros 133

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 133, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 13, 1557. It contains partial eclipses from August 7, 1683 through December 17, 1899; total eclipses from December 28, 1917 through August 3, 2278; and a second set of partial eclipses from August 14, 2296 through March 11, 2639. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 29, 2819.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 35 at 101 minutes, 41 seconds on May 30, 2170. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2170 May 30, lasting 101 minutes, 41 seconds.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1557 May 13	1683 Aug 07	1917 Dec 28	2098 Apr 15
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2224 Jul 01	2278 Aug 03	2639 Mar 11	2819 Jun 29

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

Series members 15–36 occur between 1801 and 2200:
15	16	17
1809 Oct 23	1827 Nov 03	1845 Nov 14

18	19	20
1863 Nov 25	1881 Dec 05	1899 Dec 17

21	22	23
1917 Dec 28	1936 Jan 08	1954 Jan 19

24	25	26
1972 Jan 30	1990 Feb 09	2008 Feb 21

27	28	29
2026 Mar 03	2044 Mar 13	2062 Mar 25

30	31	32
2080 Apr 04	2098 Apr 15	2116 Apr 27

33	34	35
2134 May 08	2152 May 18	2170 May 30

36
2188 Jun 09

Metonic series

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

1988 Mar 03.675 – Partial (113) 2007 Mar 03.972 – Total (123) 2026 Mar 03.481 – Total (133) 2045 Mar 03.320 – Penumbral (143)	1988 Aug 27.461 – partial (118) 2007 Aug 28.442 – total (128) 2026 Aug 28.175 – partial (138) 2045 Aug 27.578 – penumbral (148)

Inex series

The inex series repeats eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the Moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, the variation of the Moon in its elliptical orbit at each event causes the actual eclipse time to vary significantly. It is a part of Lunar Inex series 35.

Series events from 1500–2500
Descending node		Ascending node		Descending node		Ascending node
Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart
115	1505 Feb 18	116	1534 Jan 30	117	1563 Jan 9	118	1591 Dec 30
119	1620 Dec 9	120	1649 Nov 19	121	1678 Oct 29	122	1707 Oct 11
123	1736 Sep 20	124	1765 Aug 30	125	1794 Aug 11	126	1823 Jul 23
127	1852 Jul 1	128	1881 Jun 12	129	1910 May 24	130	1939 May 3
131	1968 Apr 13	132	1997 Mar 24	133	2026 Mar 3	134	2055 Feb 11
135	2084 Jan 22	136	2113 Jan 2	137	2141 Dec 13	138	2170 Nov 23
139	2199 Nov 2	140	2228 Oct 14	141	2257 Sep 24	142	2286 Sep 3
143	2315 Aug 16	144	2344 Jul 26	145	2373 Jul 5	146	2402 Jun 16
147	2431 May 27	148	2460 May 5	149	2489 Apr 16

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 140.