Set an alarm, because you won't want to sleep through this one. Late in the evening on August 27 into the early morning hours of August 28, the Moon will be part of an amazing event in the sky, a deep partial lunar eclipse, and Louisiana has a front row seat. We're talking about 96% of the Moon swallowed up by darkness, which is about as close as you can get to a total eclipse without technically calling it one.
No eclipse glasses required for this one, no special filters, nothing standing between you and the sky except maybe a cloud or two. Here's everything Louisiana needs to know before we all step outside and look up.
When to Look Up in Louisiana for the August 2026 Lunar Eclipse
Mark your calendar for the night of Thursday, August 27, running into the early hours of Friday, August 28. Here's how it breaks down in our Central time zone:
- The faint penumbral shading starts around 8:23 p.m.
- The Moon starts visibly losing its shine as the partial eclipse begins around 9:33 p.m.
- Maximum eclipse, when 96% of the Moon sits inside Earth's dark umbral shadow, hits around 11:12 p.m.
- The partial phase wraps up around 12:52 a.m.
- The last faint shading clears out by around 2:01 a.m.
That's a five and a half hour show from start to finish, with the good stuff, the partial phase, lasting a little over three hours. The Moon will already be up and climbing in the southeastern sky as it gets going, so you won't have to worry about trees or buildings blocking the view early on like you sometimes do with moonrise-timed events.
How Much of the Moon Will Actually Disappear
This is what makes the August 27-28 eclipse worth losing a little sleep over. At 96% coverage, only a sliver along the Moon's northeastern edge will stay bright while the rest slips into shadow. It's not officially a total lunar eclipse, but it's going to look and feel like one to just about everyone watching from the backyard.
As the shadow deepens, keep an eye out for that reddish, rusty glow lunar eclipses are known for. It happens because sunlight bending through Earth's atmosphere filters out the blue light and bends the red and orange wavelengths onto the Moon, the same reason our sunsets glow orange. How vivid it looks depends on how clear our skies are that night, so fingers crossed for a dry, cloudless stretch of weather here in Louisiana.
Best Spots Around Acadiana and Louisiana to Watch the Lunar Eclipse
You can absolutely watch this one from your driveway, but if you want the Moon to really pop, getting away from streetlights makes a noticeable difference. A few spots Louisiana residents swear by:
- Lake Fausse Pointe State Park near St. Martinville, close enough for an easy drive from Lafayette, with the kind of remote, swampy isolation that keeps light pollution to a minimum.
- Cypremort Point State Park on Vermilion Bay, which already draws a crowd for sunsets and offers wide open water views with nothing blocking the eastern horizon.
- Chicot State Park in Ville Platte, with plenty of open lake shoreline away from town lights.
- Kisatchie National Forest, in the middle of the state, but widely considered the darkest sky in the state if you're willing to make a night of it
Read More: Worst Solar Eclipse Photos in Louisiana
You Don't Need Eclipse Glasses, But a Few Things Help
Solar eclipses require those cardboard glasses to keep from staring straight at the sun. Lunar eclipses are the opposite story. You're just watching sunlight reflected off the Moon, so it's completely safe to look at with the naked eye the entire time.
That said, a pair of ordinary binoculars will bring out detail in the shadow's edge that you'd otherwise miss, and a small telescope makes the deepening red color even more dramatic. If you're trying to photograph it, most modern smartphones struggle with a subject that dim and that far away, so a camera with manual exposure settings and a tripod will serve you a lot better than your phone will.
Wait, Didn't We Just Have an Eclipse?
If you feel like you just heard about an eclipse a couple weeks ago, you're not imagining things. A total solar eclipse swept across Greenland, Iceland, and Spain on August 12, none of which was visible from Louisiana. Solar and lunar eclipses tend to travel in pairs about two weeks apart, since both happen around the same point in the Moon's orbit. This time, it's our turn to get the good seats.
Looking Ahead: When Will Louisiana See a Total Eclipse?
Here's the tougher news. Louisiana isn't in line for a total solar eclipse anytime soon. The next total solar eclipse to cross the United States happens in 2033, but that one is limited to Alaska. After that, 2044 only touches Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The 2045 eclipse gets a lot closer to home, cutting through Arkansas and Mississippi, which means Louisiana should catch a very deep partial eclipse of its own that day, similar to what we're getting this month with the Moon. If you want totality to actually pass directly over New Orleans, you'll need to circle back in 2078. In the meantime, deep partial lunar eclipses like this one are exactly the kind of consolation prize worth setting an alarm for.
Good luck catching a clear sky Thursday night. Grab the family, step outside around 11, and enjoy a show that won't ask you to squint through cardboard glasses to see it.
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Gallery Credit: Dave Steel
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