site.btaPartial Lunar Eclipse to Be Visible from Bulgaria on August 28

A partial lunar eclipse will occur on August 28, and its beginning will be visible from Bulgaria early in the morning, low above the western horizon, Pencho Markishki, a physicist at the Institute of Astronomy with National Astronomical Observatory at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), told BTA on Tuesday. This will be the last eclipse in 2026. 

Almost the entire lunar disk - 96% of its surface area - will fall within the Earth’s shadow on the night of August 27, and the phenomenon will be best observed from North and South America, as reported by the Associated Press a few days ago. 

The eclipse caused by the Earth’s penumbra will begin at 4:23 a.m., but for a long time afterward, the full Moon will look completely normal, Markishki said. Around 5:15 a.m., a darker area will already be visible in the upper left part of the lunar disk due to the advancing penumbra. At 5:33 a.m., the eclipse caused by the Earth’s shadow - that is, the partial phases - will begin. On August 28, the Moon will set at 6:31 a.m. in Varna and at 6:51 a.m. in Sofia. "That same morning, the Sun will rise at 6:28 a.m. in Varna and at 6:47 a.m. in Sofia, which means we will see the partially eclipsed Moon before it sets against the backdrop of the already bright daytime sky," the expert explained.

To observe the phenomenon for a longer period, he recommends choosing a location with a low western horizon. Observers in Western Bulgaria will have a little extra time to view the event because the Moon sets later there, Markishki noted.

According to him, the eclipse will reach its maximum at 7:13 a.m., but by that time the Moon will have already set in Bulgaria. At that time, Earth’s natural satellite will have entered the Earth’s shadow by 0.93 of its diameter - a phase close to a total eclipse. However, this will be visible from Western Europe, Central and West Africa, as well as North and South America.

Typically, there are two eclipse seasons each year, and during each such season, two or three eclipses occur at intervals of about 15 days - for example, a lunar and a solar eclipse, or a lunar, a solar, and then another lunar eclipse, the physicist explained.

He noted that in each year from 2021 through 2026, there were four eclipses, distributed as two in each of the two eclipse seasons - one solar and one lunar in each season. During those years, the two seasons occurred in the spring and fall. However, this pattern will soon change, as there will be five eclipses in 2027, spread across two seasons, Markishki said. He explained that the first of these seasons will feature two eclipses - an annular solar eclipse on February 6 and a partial lunar eclipse on February 20 of next year.

There will be three eclipses in the second season: a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 18, a total solar eclipse on August 2, and another penumbral lunar eclipse on August 17. 

The physicist specified that eclipse seasons occur at intervals averaging 173.3 days.

Markishki is the author of the handbook Guide for the Amateur Astronomer from the Department of Astronomy at the Faculty of Physics of the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, which has already been published as a book, and he advises amateur astronomers on how to conduct observations.