March 2026 lunar eclipse

Total lunar eclipse 3 March 2026
Ecliptic north up The Moon will pass west to east (right to left) through the Earth's shadow.
Saros (and member)	133 (27 of 71)
Gamma	-0.3765
Magnitude	1.1507
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	0:58:19
Partial	3:27:10
Penumbral	5:38:37
Contacts (UTC)
P1	8:44:22
U1	9:50:00
U2	11:04:26
Greatest	11:33:37
U3	12:02:45
U4	13:17:10
P4	14:22:59

A total lunar eclipse will take place on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, the first of two lunar eclipses in 2026.

This eclipse is the third of an almost tetrad, with others being 14 Mar 2025 (T), 07 Sep 2025 (T) and 28 Aug 2026 (P).

Visibility[edit]

It will be completely visible over the Pacific, western USA and Canada, and New Zealand, will be seen rising over Australia and Asia, and setting over the rest of the Americas.

Related eclipses[edit]

Eclipses in 2026[edit]

An annular solar eclipse on 17 February.
A total lunar eclipse on 3 March.
A total solar eclipse on 12 August.
A partial lunar eclipse on 28 August.

Lunar year series[edit]

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2024–2027
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date	Type Viewing	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
113	2024 Mar 25	Penumbral	1.06098	118	2024 Sep 18	Partial	−0.97920
123	2025 Mar 14	Total	0.34846	128	2025 Sep 07	Total	−0.27521
133	2026 Mar 03	Total	−0.37651	138	2026 Aug 28	Partial	0.49644
143	2027 Feb 20	Penumbral	−1.04803	148	2027 Aug 17	Penumbral	1.27974

Last set	2023 May 05			Last set	2023 Oct 28

Next set	2028 Jan 12			Next set	2027 Jul 18

Saros series[edit]

This lunar eclipse is part of series 133 of the Saros cycle, which repeats every 18 years and 11 days. Series 133 runs from the year 1557 until 2819. The previous eclipse of this series occurred on 21 February 2008 and the next will occur on 13 March 2044.

It is the 7th of 21 total lunar eclipses in series 133. The first was on 28 December 1917. The last (21st) will be on 3 August 2278. The longest two occurrences of this series (14th and 15th) will last for a total of 1 hour and 42 minutes on 18 May 2152 and 30 May 2170. Solar saros 140 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Metonic cycle (19 years)[edit]

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

1988 Mar 03.675 – Partial (113) 2007 Mar 03.972 – Total (123) 2026 Mar 03.481 – Total (133) 2045 Mar 03.320 – Penumbral (143)	1988 Aug 27.461 – partial (118) 2007 Aug 28.442 – total (128) 2026 Aug 28.175 – partial (138) 2045 Aug 27.578 – penumbral (148)

Inex series[edit]

The inex series repeats eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the Moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, the variation of the Moon in its elliptical orbit at each event causes the actual eclipse time to vary significantly. It is a part of Lunar Inex series 35.

Series events from 1500–2500
Descending node		Ascending node		Descending node		Ascending node
Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart
115	1505 Feb 18	116	1534 Jan 30	117	1563 Jan 9	118	1591 Dec 30
119	1620 Dec 9	120	1649 Nov 19	121	1678 Oct 29	122	1707 Oct 11
123	1736 Sep 20	124	1765 Aug 30	125	1794 Aug 11	126	1823 Jul 23
127	1852 Jul 1	128	1881 Jun 12	129	1910 May 24	130	1939 May 3
131	1968 Apr 13	132	1997 Mar 24	133	2026 Mar 3	134	2055 Feb 11
135	2084 Jan 22	136	2113 Jan 2	137	2141 Dec 13	138	2170 Nov 23
139	2199 Nov 2	140	2228 Oct 14	141	2257 Sep 24	142	2286 Sep 3
143	2315 Aug 16	144	2344 Jul 26	145	2373 Jul 5	146	2402 Jun 16
147	2431 May 27	148	2460 May 5	149	2489 Apr 16

Half-Saros cycle[edit]

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 140.