This is the celestial highlight of the year: a total lunar eclipse perfectly placed for New Zealand on the night of March 3-4. We will not see another total lunar eclipse from here until December 2028. A dark notch appears on the Moon’s edge — Earth’s umbra, our planet’s true shadow, advancing steadily across the lunar surface. At 12.33am, maximum eclipse, it will hang high in the north-northeast, deep within Earth’s shadow. Sunlight, filtered and reddened by our atmosphere, is bent into the shadow and softly illuminates the lunar surface.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 27, 2026 20:32 UTC