#BloodMoonEclipse is the hashtag for the deep partial lunar eclipse of 27–28 August 2026, when up to 96% of the full Sturgeon Moon passed into Earth’s umbral shadow and glowed copper-red for observers across the Americas, Europe and Africa. It arrived just over two weeks after the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026, making the late-summer weeks the busiest stretch of naked-eye astronomy the mainstream feed had all year and driving a flood of “almost blood moon” photo threads across X, Instagram and TikTok.
Quick Facts
- Type: Deep partial lunar eclipse
- Peak umbral coverage: ~96% of the Moon’s Earth-facing side
- Date: Overnight Thursday 27 August → Friday 28 August 2026
- Total duration (first to last penumbral contact): 5 hours 38 minutes
- Full moon involved: August full Moon, traditionally the “Sturgeon Moon”
- Visibility: Americas, Europe and Africa (whole or part)
- Nickname widely used in coverage: the “almost blood moon”
What Happened
Because Earth’s umbra covered all but a 4% sliver of the lunar disc at greatest eclipse, sunlight bent through Earth’s atmosphere fell on virtually the entire face of the Moon, turning it a rich rusty red — the classic “blood moon” look normally reserved for total lunar eclipses. Space.com’s live blog and Forbes’ photo round-up both led with the visual: to the naked eye and to most cameras, an event that was technically partial looked essentially total, and observers from Brazil to the U.K. reported a strikingly copper-toned Moon at maximum.
Origin
Every lunar eclipse is a full-Moon event that happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon fall close enough to a straight line for the Moon to enter Earth’s shadow. In 2026, the geometry lined up twice in one lunation: a total solar eclipse at new Moon on 12 August, then this deep partial lunar eclipse at the following full Moon on 27–28 August. Sky-watching outlets began flagging the pair months in advance — Sky at Night Magazine, Scientific American and NASA-adjacent trackers all previewed it — but the hashtag surge came in the 24 hours around greatest eclipse, when photos and time-lapses started spreading in real time.
Social Media & Spread
The event was tailor-made for social platforms: a night-time astronomical spectacle visible from major U.S. and European media markets, with easy phone-camera capture at maximum. Local news stations solicited viewer photos (Fox 11 Wisconsin and WSAW both ran “Chime In” galleries), Space.com and Forbes aggregated the best global shots, and Weather.com and Al Jazeera ran live guides in the hours before totality-adjacent maximum. The nickname “almost blood moon” became the dominant framing in headlines and captions, sitting alongside plain #BloodMoon and event-specific #BloodMoon2026 and #LunarEclipse2026 variants.
Cultural Impact
Coming right after the summer’s total solar eclipse across Europe, the lunar event capped a stretch of high-visibility astronomy that repeatedly broke through onto mainstream feeds normally dominated by pop culture and politics. For many first-time skywatchers who had cued up on the 12 August total solar eclipse coverage, the 27–28 August blood moon was an accessible follow-up — no travel required, no special glasses, just look up — and coverage repeatedly framed the two events together as a “double bill” summer for the sky.
Variations & Related Tags
The event circulated under #BloodMoon, #BloodMoon2026, #LunarEclipse2026, #AlmostBloodMoon and #SturgeonMoon, alongside the earlier #SolarEclipse2026 hashtag that had carried the 12 August total solar eclipse across Iceland and Spain.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2026_lunar_eclipse
- https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/august-2026-lunar-eclipse-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-96-percent-blood-moon
- https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/partial-lunar-eclipse-stuns-skywatchers-with-an-almost-blood-moon-here-are-the-best-photos
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2026/08/28/in-photos-nearly-total-blood-moon-eclipse-stuns-skywatchers/
- https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/blood-moon-august-2026-tips
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-see-the-2026-blood-moon-eclipse-this-week/
- https://weather.com/2026/08/27/science/space/video/lunar-eclipse-august-2026-when-where-to-watch
- https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-lunar-2026-august-28