A partial lunar eclipse is visible from Guatemala on the night of Thursday, August 27, 2026. About 93% of the Moon’s diameter passes into Earth’s shadow at maximum — nearly all the way across, though a bright sliver stays lit. It is the deepest lunar eclipse visible from Guatemala until June 2029.
Quick answer: Starts ~19:00, maximum ~22:13–22:15 (93% of the Moon’s diameter in shadow), ends ~01:00 on August 28 — Guatemala time. No eye protection needed — that rule is for solar eclipses. The binding risk is cloud, not timing: this is peak rainy season.
The August 27, 2026 partial lunar eclipse
| Date (Guatemala) | Night of Thursday, August 27 into Friday, August 28, 2026 |
| Begins | approximately 19:00 |
| Greatest phase | approximately 22:15 — about 93% of the lunar disc inside Earth’s shadow |
| Ends | approximately 01:00 on August 28 |
| Type | Partial lunar eclipse |
| Eye protection | Not required. Safe to view with the naked eye |
| Local source | INSIVUMEH monthly astronomical bulletin |
Cross-check. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center catalogue lists this eclipse as 2026 Aug 28, greatest eclipse 04:14:04 TD, partial, Saros series 138, umbral magnitude 0.930, visible from the eastern Pacific, the Americas, Europe and Africa (NASA GSFC lunar eclipse table 2021–2030).
⚠ That column is TD, not UT — and it matters by about a minute. NASA’s own page defines it: “The second column TD of Greatest Eclipse is the Terrestrial Dynamical Time of greatest eclipse.” TD runs roughly 75 seconds ahead of UT in this period, so 04:14:04 TD is about 04:12:49 UT. Guatemala runs on UTC−6 all year, so greatest eclipse lands near 22:13 on the 27th local. Every local time on this page is derived that way — TD minus about 75 seconds, minus six hours — and is good to roughly the minute, not the second.
INSIVUMEH publishes 22:15; our conversion gives 22:13. Those are the same event two minutes apart, which is what you should expect from two roughly-stated figures — we are not claiming the two agree to the minute. Note also that NASA’s 0.930 is a fraction of the Moon’s DIAMETER, not of its visible area (NASA: “the fraction of the Moon’s diameter immersed in Earth’s umbral shadow”); INSIVUMEH phrases the same idea loosely as “93 % del disco”. So read 93% as almost the full width of the Moon covered — not as 93% of its visible surface, which would be a much bigger number than what actually happens.
What you will actually see
The first and last stretches are the penumbral phase, when the Moon passes through the soft outer shadow. Most people cannot tell it is happening — the Moon looks slightly dull at most. The part worth going outside for is the umbral phase around maximum, when a clearly defined dark curve moves across the disc and the shadowed portion often takes on a coppery or reddish cast. NASA gives the umbral phase a duration of 3 hours 18 minutes, centred on about 22:13 local.
Because about 7% of the Moon’s diameter stays outside the umbra at maximum, this will not be a fully red “blood moon” — a bright sliver remains along one edge the whole time, and that bright edge makes the shadowed part look darker than it would during a total eclipse.
How to watch it
- Nothing is required. No glasses, no filter, no app. Lunar eclipses are safe to view directly for the whole duration.
- Binoculars help. Any pair will sharpen the edge of the shadow. A telescope is not needed.
- Find an open sky. The Moon will be high through the main phase, so a rooftop, a patio or any spot without tall obstructions works. City light pollution barely affects a lunar eclipse — unlike meteor showers, you do not need to leave town.
- Plan for cloud, not for timing. Late August is deep in the rainy season across most of Guatemala — our Guatemala weather guide covers which regions clear up and when. The eclipse lasts hours, so a break in the cloud is usually enough; check your local forecast that afternoon.
- Already planning a night outdoors? An Acatenango overnight puts you above much of the cloud with an open sky all night — see the volcano tracker for current activity and alert levels before you book.
Every eclipse visible from Guatemala through 2029 — and whether it is worth it
Times converted from NASA’s catalogue to Guatemala local time (UTC−6). “Worth it” is our own judgement based on the published magnitude, not an official rating.
| Local date | Greatest phase (local) | Type | Umbral magnitude (fraction of the Moon’s diameter) | What you would see | Worth staying up? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu Aug 27, 2026 | ~22:13 | Partial lunar | 0.930 | 93% of the Moon’s diameter in shadow, obvious to the naked eye | Yes — the best one for three years |
| Sat Feb 20, 2027 | ~17:13 | Penumbral lunar | −0.057 | Effectively nothing — and greatest phase falls before the Moon has risen in Guatemala, so there is nothing to see here at all | No |
| Tue Aug 17, 2027 | ~01:14 | Penumbral lunar | −0.525 | A faint shading at best | No |
| Tue Jan 11, 2028 | ~22:13 | Partial lunar | 0.066 | A small notch on one edge — 6.6% of the Moon’s diameter, so only a few percent of its visible face | Marginal |
| Mon Jun 25, 2029 | ~21:22 | Total lunar | 1.844 | The whole Moon inside Earth’s shadow — a true “blood moon” | Yes — the big one |
| Thu Dec 20, 2029 | ~16:42 | Total lunar | 1.117 | Totality happens before the Moon rises in Guatemala — from here you would catch only the tail of the partial phase after moonrise, not the total phase | Not for totality |
Source for all dates, times, magnitudes and visibility regions: NASA GSFC, Lunar Eclipses 2021–2030. NASA publishes TD; local times above are TD − ~75 s − 6 h, rounded to the minute. A negative magnitude means the Moon never reaches Earth’s dark inner shadow at all — that is why the two 2027 events are listed as not worth the alarm clock. Being listed by NASA as visible from “the Americas” does not mean the Moon is above the horizon in Guatemala at the key moment — the two rows flagged above are exactly that case, which is why we checked each one rather than trusting the region label.
Solar eclipses
There is no solar eclipse visible from Guatemala in 2026 or 2027. The two total solar eclipses in that window — August 12, 2026 (northern North America, western Africa, Europe) and August 2, 2027 (Africa, Europe, the Middle East, western and southern Asia) — do not reach Central America, and the annular eclipses of February 17, 2026 and February 6, 2027 fall over the far south.
Two solar eclipses in this window do reach us, and both are partial as seen from Guatemala:
| Date | Type at greatest | NASA visibility region | From Guatemala |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26, 2028 | Annular (15:08:58 TD, magnitude 0.921) | e N. America, C. & S. America, w Europe, nw Africa | Partial — the ring-of-fire path runs through Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, Spain and Portugal, not here |
| Jan 14, 2029 | Partial (17:13:47 TD, magnitude 0.871) | N. America, C. America | Partial — this is the one eclipse in the whole window whose visibility region is only North and Central America |
Source: NASA GSFC, Solar Eclipses 2021–2030. We will publish exact local circumstances for both once INSIVUMEH announces them.
⚠ Solar eclipses are the dangerous kind. Never look at a partially eclipsed Sun without a certified solar filter. Sunglasses, smoked glass, exposed film and looking through a camera, phone or binoculars are all unsafe and can cause permanent retinal damage. None of this applies to the lunar eclipses above.
Sources
- INSIVUMEH — Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología, monthly astronomical bulletin for August 2026: local start, maximum and end times, and the 93% figure.
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center — Lunar Eclipses 2021–2030 and Solar Eclipses 2021–2030: dates, universal times, eclipse type, Saros series, magnitude and visibility regions.
- IANA time zone database (
America/Guatemala) — the reference for the UTC offset. We checked it programmatically across 2000–2031: the offset is UTC−6 on every date used on this page, and the only year with any daylight-saving offset is 2006. Local-time conversions here are ours, computed from NASA’s universal times using that −6 offset.
This page is updated as new eclipses are announced — future eclipses are added here rather than published as separate pages.