To the Moon
The Moon will be hitting the headlines in a big way in 2026.
During the first part of the year—and no later than April 2026—the 4-person crew of Artemis II will blast off on a 10-day mission to the Moon and back.
Although the crew won’t be landing on the lunar surface, they will fly around the far side of the Moon—becoming the first humans to do so since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Humans will walk again on the Moon in mid-2027, when Artemis III lands near the lunar South Pole. Why the South Pole? Read more in our story.
A Blood Moon
The first part of the year will also see a total lunar eclipse—the last one, in fact, until the final moments of 2028.
On March 2–3 the Moon will pass through the dark inner part of Earth’s shadow in space. Totality, where the Moon famously turns a blood red color, will last for 58 minutes.
The eclipse will be visible from North and South America, the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and eastern parts of Asia.
You can also watch the eclipse live here on timeanddate.com.
When is the next eclipse in your town?The Moon Covers Up the Sun
The Moon will be involved in another big eclipse in 2026—but this time, the Moon will be the body creating the shadow.
On August 12, the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun, creating a total solar eclipse visible from parts of Spain, Iceland, Greenland, and Russia. Totality will last around 2 minutes at most.
It will be the first total eclipse of the Sun since the Great North American eclipse of April 2024. And it will be the first totality in mainland Europe since August 1999.
As always, you can join our live coverage of the eclipse.
4 eclipses not to miss, 2026–2029
A Blue Moon
Every standard calendar year contains either 12 or 13 Full Moons. 2026 has 13 Full Moons.
Since there are only 12 months in a year, this means that one month will have two Full Moons. This will be May. The second Full Moon in a calendar month is known as a Blue Moon.
How rare is a Blue Moon? Perhaps not as rare as the expression “Once in a Blue Moon” implies. On average, we get two Full Moons in the same calendar once every 2½ years or so.
Biggest and Smallest Full Moons in 2026
The Moon’s orbit around Earth is not a perfect circle. Instead, it’s a slightly squashed circle, with the Earth slightly off-center: Mathematicians call this an ellipse.
The exact shape of the Moon’s elliptical orbit undergoes subtle changes from one month to the next. As a result, no two Full Moons are exactly the same.
Some Full Moons are a bit closer to Earth, and therefore a tiny fraction bigger in the sky. The number of days between successive Full Moons varies by a few hours. And the fraction of the Moon’s disk that is illuminated at each Full Moon goes up and down by trifling amounts.
What is a Supermoon?The following table shows the most extreme Full Moons in 2026. (All of the dates in this article are in UTC. You can get a Moon phase calendar for your time zone here.)
| Biggest Full Moon | 24 Dec | 0.558° diameter |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest Full Moon | 31 May | 0.490° diameter |
| Longest time between Full Moons | 1 May–31 May | 29.640 days |
| Shortest time between Full Moons | 24 Nov–24 Dec | 29.441 days |
| Most illuminated Full Moon | 3 Mar | 99.999% illuminated |
| Least illuminated Full Moon | 31 May | 99.814% illuminated |
- How big is a diameter of 0.558°? It’s roughly half the size of your little finger held at arm’s length. Read our handy guide to measuring the sky.
- What does 99.814% illuminated mean? That’s the fraction of the Moon’s disk illuminated by the Sun.
- Hang on, aren’t Full Moons 100% illuminated? Not quite. The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly tilted, which means the Sun, Earth, and Moon are almost never perfectly aligned at Full Moon.
- Where does all this data come from? We use our own timeanddate.com algorithms, together with Development Ephemeris 430 (DE430)—a mathematical model of the solar system created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Method in the Moon’s Madness
Looking at the table above, it’s no coincidence that the biggest Full Moon coincides with the shortest time between successive Full Moons. The closer the Moon is to Earth, the faster it travels along its orbit—and the more quickly it completes its cycle of Moon phases.
Similarly, it’s no coincidence that the most illuminated Full Moon coincides with a lunar eclipse. If the Moon’s disk is 99.999% illuminated as seen from Earth, it means the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in near-perfect alignment.
The Moon in a Hurry
Our Moon data for 2026 throws up two eye-catching speed records.
1. 2026 includes the two shortest synodic months this decade.
- A synodic month is the period from one New Moon to the next.
- On average, a synodic month is around 29.5 days.
- But in 2026 the Moon will race from New Moon on May 16 to New Moon on June 15 in 29.287 days.
- The Moon will then rush to the next New Moon, on July 14, in just 29.285 days.
2. 2026 includes the second-shortest Third Quarter to New Moon intermediate phase this century.
- An intermediate Moon phase is the period from any one primary phase to the next. The primary Moon phases are New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Third Quarter.
- On average, an intermediate Moon phase is around 7.4 days.
- In 2026 the Moon will sprint from Third Quarter on July 7 to New Moon on July 14 in 6.594 days.
- The shortest Third Quarter to New Moon intermediate phase of all this century was in 2008, from June 26 to July 3 in 6.589 days.
Frequently Asked Moon Questions
Exactly how fast does the Moon travel?
At its closest point to Earth, the Moon’s orbital velocity is around 1.1 kilometers per second (0.7 miles per second). In other words, this is the speed the Moon is traveling at as it circles the Earth.
Do we know the crew for Artemis II?
Yes, NASA announced the Artemis II crew back in April 2023: Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Does the next total lunar eclipse after 2026 really happen in “the final moments of 2028”?
Well, it depends on where you are—but yes, we can say that! For example, in Perth, Western Australia, the partial phase begins at 23:07 (11:07 pm) local time on New Year’s Eve.
And when’s the next total solar eclipse?
After August 12, 2026, the next total eclipse of the Sun will be on August 2, 2027. The path of totality crosses Spain (again), Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean. In Luxor, Egypt, totality will last for around 6½ minutes.