Aug. 27-28 — Partial lunar eclipse
To close out the second eclipse season of this year, we have a partial lunar eclipse. This lunar eclipse will be totally visible to all of the Americas and partially visible to Europe and Africa.
A lunar eclipse consists of ascending and descending stages: penumbral, partial and maximum. Penumbra refers to the faint outline of a shadow, in this case Earth’s shadow. The penumbral eclipse phase begins at approximately 9:23 p.m. EST, according to timeanddate.com.
This is considered only a partial eclipse because at its maximum, it will only cover a magnitude of 0.93 of the lunar surface — with just a little sliver of the moon still being hit by the sun’s light.
Total eclipse of the moon on March 3, 2026, captured during the partial phase, with a large portion of the Moon’s disk at the southeastern limb still lit by “normal” sunlight, though that area is still in the penumbral shadow of the Earth.
Aug. 28 — Sturgeon Moon
The full moon of late August is known as the Sturgeon Moon, named after the fish found in several regions of North America, primarily around the Great Lakes.
“Sturgeon Moon” is another moon name that originates with North American explorer Jonathan Carver’s 1778 book “Travels through the interior parts of North-America in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768.” Carver cited the names for his original list of monthly moons to an unspecified “Indian” tribe, and the names are now thought to be primarily Algonquin in origin. It is so named “because in this month they catch great numbers of that fish,” he wrote.
Other Indigenous names for the moon include the Corn Moon (Algonquin, Ponca), the Harvest Moon (Abenaki, Creek), the Plum Moon (Shawnee), the Huckleberry Moon (Ojibwe), the Courting Time Moon (Choctaw) and the Moon When Young Ducks Begin To Fly (Cree). The Celtic names for the August full moon are the Grain Moon and the Dispute Moon, so named for both the harvest and the idea that disputes should be resolved heading into the leaner time of year.
Thursday night’s forecast
Partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 70s overnight.
READ MORE:What you need to know about the partial lunar eclipse tonight
