Why doesn't an eclipse happen every month?

The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees relative to Earth's orbital plane around the Sun. Most months the new or full Moon passes above or below the Sun-Earth line, so no eclipse occurs. An eclipse is only possible when a new or full Moon happens near one of the two points where the orbital planes intersect — the lunar nodes.

What is an eclipse season?

An eclipse season is the roughly 34-day window, twice a year, when the Sun is close enough to a lunar node for eclipses to occur. Every eclipse season produces at least one solar and one lunar eclipse, and a year always has either four, five, six, or seven eclipses in total.

What is the saros cycle?

The saros is a period of about 18 years 11 days 8 hours after which the Sun, Earth, and Moon return to nearly the same relative geometry, so a very similar eclipse repeats. Eclipses separated by one saros belong to the same saros series, which NASA numbers and tracks over centuries.

How is a total solar eclipse different from an annular one?

Both happen when the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun. In a total eclipse the Moon is close enough to fully cover the Sun's disk; in an annular eclipse the Moon is near apogee and appears slightly too small, leaving a bright ring (annulus) of sunlight around it.

Eclipse calendar

Upcoming eclipses

12 solar and lunar eclipses scheduled through 2030 — 8 solar and 4 lunar. Click any event for the peak moment in your local time, magnitude, duration, and the path of totality or annularity.

Eclipse basics

What an eclipse is, and why they cluster

An eclipse is a line-up of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Solar eclipses need a new Moon, lunar eclipses need a full Moon, and both need that Moon to sit near a lunar node. The detail pages below carry the per-event geometry — this hub explains the categories so the listing reads clearly.

Solar eclipses: total, annular, hybrid, partial

Solar eclipses happen at new Moon when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. A total eclipse fully covers the solar disk along a narrow path of totality; an annular eclipse leaves a bright ring because the Moon is near the far point of its orbit; a hybrid eclipse shifts between total and annular along its track; and a partial eclipse covers only a fraction of the disk.

Lunar eclipses: total, partial, penumbral

Lunar eclipses happen at full Moon when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow. A total lunar eclipse moves the whole Moon into the dark umbra and often turns it copper-red; a partial eclipse darkens only part of the disk; a penumbral eclipse passes through the faint outer shadow and produces only a subtle shading. Lunar eclipses are visible from the entire night side of Earth at once.

Why eclipses skip most months

The Moon's orbit is tilted roughly 5 degrees to the ecliptic. An eclipse can only occur when a new or full Moon lands near a lunar node — the two points where the orbital planes cross. Away from the nodes the Moon's shadow misses Earth, or Earth's shadow misses the Moon, which is why most new and full Moons produce nothing.

Eclipse seasons and the saros cycle

Eclipse seasons recur about every 173 days, each one guaranteeing at least one solar and one lunar eclipse. The saros — about 18 years and 11 days — is the longer rhythm: after one saros the Sun-Earth-Moon geometry nearly repeats, so a closely matching eclipse occurs. NASA groups eclipses into numbered saros series, and individual eclipse pages carry the series number and previous/next links.

A common year has four eclipses (two solar, two lunar); years with a third eclipse season can have five, six, or rarely seven. Totality is always narrow and brief, which is why each solar eclipse page maps the specific path.

Upcoming eclipses by year

Every event links to a detail page with the peak time in your timezone.

2026 · 2 eclipses

2027 · 2 eclipses

2028 · 3 eclipses

2029 · 3 eclipses

2030 · 2 eclipses

Eclipse calendar reference data

Eclipse types, years covered, and upcoming event slugs from the current NASA-sourced catalog.

eclipsecalendarsolareclipselunareclipsesaroscycleeclipseseasonpathoftotalitygreatesteclipsetotalsolareclipseannularsolareclipsehybridsolareclipsepartialsolareclipsetotallunareclipsepartiallunareclipsepenumbrallunareclipsetotalsolareclipse2026081220260812partiallunareclipse2026082820260828annularsolareclipse2027020620270206totalsolareclipse2027080220270802annularsolareclipse2028012620280126totalsolareclipse2028072220280722totallunareclipse2028123120281231partialsolareclipse2029011420290114totallunareclipse2029062620290626totallunareclipse2029122020291220annularsolareclipse2030060120300601totalsolareclipse2030112520301125calendarsolareclipselunareclipsesaroscycleeclipseseasonpathoftotalitytotalitygreatesteclipse12totalsolareclipseannularannularsolareclipsehybridhybridsolareclipsepartialpartialsolareclipsetotaltotallunarpartiallunareclipsepenumbralpenumbrallunareclipse2026202620272027202820282029202920302030total12partial28partial28annulareclipse202706annular02annulareclipse202826annular31partialeclipse202914partial20annulareclipse203001annulareclipsecalendarsolarcalendarsolareclipsesolareclipselunareclipselunareclipselunareclipsesaroseclipsesaroscyclesaroscycleeclipsecycleeclipseseasoneclipseseasonpathseasonpathofoftotalitygreatesttotalitygreatesteclipse

Data source

Eclipse data from NASA/JPL — Fred Espenak & Jean Meeus, Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses and Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses (NASA Technical Publications NASA/TP–2006-214141 and NASA/TP–2009-214172). Public domain; re-published here with attribution.

Authoritative source: eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov — NASA NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Questions

FAQ

Is this data accurate enough for travel planning?: Yes. The peak times are accurate to the minute and come straight from NASA's Five Millennium Canon. For the path of totality (which determines whether a specific city is in the path), follow the per-eclipse NASA link on each detail page — those interactive maps are authoritative and update if any rare correction is published.
Why do solar and lunar eclipses look so different?: Solar eclipses are visible only along a narrow path on Earth's surface (the Moon's shadow is small), so the "visible region" for a total solar eclipse is often a strip a few hundred kilometres wide. Lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere on Earth's night side at the moment of greatest eclipse — much broader audience, but no totality path to chase.
How does the local-time conversion work?: We take NASA's published peak time in UTC and convert it to your browser's reported timezone using the standard Intl.DateTimeFormat API. So when you load a page and it says the peak is at 21:46 your time, that's the converted moment of greatest eclipse. The countdown ticks down to that exact moment.
What's the difference between magnitude and obscuration?: Magnitude is the fraction of the Sun's (or Moon's) diameter eclipsed — a unitless number where 1.0 means the diameters exactly match. Obscuration is the fraction of the Sun's area covered. They differ because diameter and area scale differently. We display NASA's standard magnitude convention; for area-based estimates, see the per-eclipse NASA page.
Why aren't eclipses past 2030 listed?: The upcoming-eclipses catalog stops at 2030 because (a) very long-range predictions still need ground-truth refinement and (b) most users want "what's next" not "what's in 2087." The Five Millennium Canon predicts thousands of future eclipses; the NASA links from this calendar take you to the full historical and future tables for any year.

Related tools

What an eclipse is, and why they cluster

Solar eclipses: total, annular, hybrid, partial

Lunar eclipses: total, partial, penumbral

Why eclipses skip most months

Eclipse seasons and the saros cycle

FAQ

Is this data accurate enough for travel planning?

Yes. The peak times are accurate to the minute and come straight from NASA's Five Millennium Canon. For the path of totality (which determines whether a specific city is in the path), follow the per-eclipse NASA link on each detail page — those interactive maps are authoritative and update if any rare correction is published.

Why do solar and lunar eclipses look so different?

Solar eclipses are visible only along a narrow path on Earth's surface (the Moon's shadow is small), so the "visible region" for a total solar eclipse is often a strip a few hundred kilometres wide. Lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere on Earth's night side at the moment of greatest eclipse — much broader audience, but no totality path to chase.

How does the local-time conversion work?

We take NASA's published peak time in UTC and convert it to your browser's reported timezone using the standard Intl.DateTimeFormat API. So when you load a page and it says the peak is at 21:46 your time, that's the converted moment of greatest eclipse. The countdown ticks down to that exact moment.

What's the difference between magnitude and obscuration?

Magnitude is the fraction of the Sun's (or Moon's) diameter eclipsed — a unitless number where 1.0 means the diameters exactly match. Obscuration is the fraction of the Sun's area covered. They differ because diameter and area scale differently. We display NASA's standard magnitude convention; for area-based estimates, see the per-eclipse NASA page.

Why aren't eclipses past 2030 listed?

The upcoming-eclipses catalog stops at 2030 because (a) very long-range predictions still need ground-truth refinement and (b) most users want "what's next" not "what's in 2087." The Five Millennium Canon predicts thousands of future eclipses; the NASA links from this calendar take you to the full historical and future tables for any year.

Upcoming eclipses

What an eclipse is, and why they cluster

Solar eclipses: total, annular, hybrid, partial

Lunar eclipses: total, partial, penumbral

Why eclipses skip most months

Eclipse seasons and the saros cycle

Upcoming eclipses by year

2026 · 2 eclipses

2027 · 2 eclipses

2028 · 3 eclipses

2029 · 3 eclipses

2030 · 2 eclipses

FAQ

Related tools

Never miss a launch, finale, or eclipse.

Upcoming eclipses

What an eclipse is, and why they cluster

Solar eclipses: total, annular, hybrid, partial

Lunar eclipses: total, partial, penumbral

Why eclipses skip most months

Eclipse seasons and the saros cycle

Upcoming eclipses by year

2026 · 2 eclipses

2027 · 2 eclipses

2028 · 3 eclipses

2029 · 3 eclipses

2030 · 2 eclipses

FAQ

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