🌑 Eclipses — Solar & Lunar

Science Centre Observatory · what they are, when they're next, and where the shadow falls

An eclipse is a shadow. When the Sun, Earth and Moon fall into a straight line, one body's shadow lands on another — and for a few minutes the everyday sky does something astonishing.

In a solar eclipse the Moon passes between us and the Sun at New Moon, and the Moon's shadow sweeps a narrow track across the Earth. In a lunar eclipse the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon at Full Moon, and the Moon glides through Earth's shadow, often glowing a deep copper-red.

☀️ Never look at the Sun — not with the naked eye, and never through a telescope or binoculars — without a proper solar filter. A partial or annular eclipse is still blindingly bright. A lunar eclipse, by contrast, is completely safe to watch with the naked eye or any scope. See our solar viewing and filters pages.

The geometry — why a shadow, and why not every month

☀️🌑 Solar — the Moon's shadow on Earth

New Moon: the Moon blocks the Sun. Its shadow is tiny where it hits Earth, so totality is only ever seen along a narrow path a few tens of km wide.

☀️🌍 Lunar — Earth's shadow on the Moon

Full Moon: the Moon enters Earth's long shadow. That shadow is huge, so a lunar eclipse is visible from the entire night side of Earth at once.

So why isn't there an eclipse every month? Because the Moon's orbit is tilted about 5° to Earth's path around the Sun. Most months the Moon passes a little above or below the Sun or shadow and misses. Only when a New or Full Moon happens near a node — where the two orbits cross — do the three bodies line up well enough. Those alignments repeat in the famous saros cycle of about 18 years 11 days.

The kinds of eclipse

Solar (at New Moon):

Total — the Moon fully covers the Sun; the corona appears; day briefly turns to twilight. Only on the narrow central path.

Annular — the Moon is a little too far to cover the Sun, leaving a bright “ring of fire”. Still dangerously bright.

Partial — off to the side of the path, the Moon takes only a bite out of the Sun.

Hybrid — rare; the curve of the Earth makes it total along part of the track and annular along the rest.

Lunar (at Full Moon):

Total — the whole Moon enters Earth's dark umbra and turns copper-red — the “Blood Moon”. Red because it's lit only by every sunrise and sunset on Earth at once.

Partial — only part of the Moon dips into the umbra; a dark bite crosses it.

Penumbral — the Moon grazes only the soft outer shadow; a subtle shading, easy to miss.

Forecast — every eclipse, 2026–2030

Where the shadow travels — schematic world map

Pick a solar eclipse to trace the path of totality (or annularity) across the Earth. A lunar eclipse is visible from the whole night side, so its “region” is a hemisphere, not a line.

🇸🇬 From Singapore & the observatory

The realistic events for a SCOB public night are the total lunar eclipses.

A lunar eclipse is visible from anywhere the Moon is above the horizon — so whenever a total lunar eclipse falls on Singapore's night, it's a superb, safe, naked-eye crowd event that any of our scopes can share. The standout in this window is the New Year's Eve total lunar eclipse of 31 December 2028, with more total lunars in 2029. No total or annular solar eclipse crosses Singapore between 2026 and 2030 — the great 2 August 2027 total is a bucket-list trip to Spain, Egypt or Arabia, not a local sight. Always confirm exact local times for Singapore at the links below nearer the date, and for any solar eclipse, rig the deck's white-light and Hα solar filters (see the solar page).

📅 All sky events ☀️ Solar viewing 🌕 Tonight on the Moon

Eclipse dates, types, durations and paths are from NASA's Goddard Eclipse Web Site (Espenak & Meeus) and cross-checked with timeanddate.com. The world map is schematic — the path lines are approximate; for the precise track and local circumstances use the per-eclipse links, and for Singapore's exact local times see timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/singapore. This list runs to 2030 and should be reviewed before then. Countdown is computed on your device. Science Centre Observatory, Singapore.

ℹ️ About & credits