{"id":659649,"date":"2026-08-27T18:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659649\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:05:11","slug":"theres-a-rare-partial-blood-moon-eclipse-early-friday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659649\/","title":{"rendered":"There&#8217;s a rare partial &#8216;blood moon&#8217; eclipse early Friday morning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A PARTIAL LUNAR eclipse is happening from around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeanddate.com\/eclipse\/in\/ireland?iso=20260828\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">4am to just after 6am<\/a>\u00a0Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p>This event is known as a \u2018Blood Moon\u2019 because the shadow of the Earth gives it a dull red coppery glow.<\/p>\n<p>The peak of the eclipse will occur around 5.12am when only a small sliver of the moon will remain.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately the night is forecast to be wet and cloudy. Met \u00c9ireann has said outbreaks of rain will continue over much of the south, east and midlands, with drier conditions in the west and northwest.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you\u2019re able to catch a glimpse of the eclipse, no protective glasses are needed as it\u2019s safe to look directly at the moon, unlike the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/solar-eclispe-2026-7122101-Aug2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">solar eclipse earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomy Ireland said tonight\u2019s blood moon is the best lunar eclipse Ireland will see until New Year\u2019s Eve 2028.<\/p>\n<p>The society said that at the peak of the eclipse, only around 3.5% of the moon will be visible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven this sliver is only faintly lit up by the Sun due to the nature of a lunar eclipse, meaning this eclipse is almost as good as a total lunar eclipse like the next one visible from Ireland 31 December 2028,\u201d it said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>David Moore, Editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine said: \u201cThe lower part of the Moon will be in deep eclipse from before 5am and should look the reddish colour that total lunar eclipses are known for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen dozens of eclipses and no two lunar eclipses are the same as the Earth\u2019s shadow is filled by light filtering around the Earth from all of the planet\u2019s sunrises and all of its sunsets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He said that as well as coppery and blood reds you can often see other colours, from blues to yellows.<\/p>\n<p>Moore recommended using binoculars for a closer view.<\/p>\n<p>He also said not to be deterred by the weather. He added: \u201cYou only need a tiny break in any clouds to see it. I\u2019ve seen eclipses in the rain, and in almost 100% cloud cover.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PARTIAL LUNAR eclipse is happening from around 4am to just after 6am\u00a0Friday morning. This event is known&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[582,80214,16124,18,19,17,27886,133,451],"class_list":["post-659649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-astronomy-ireland","tag-blood-moon","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lunar-eclipse","tag-science","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117168801520829727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}