when will lunar eclipse start

The next major lunar eclipse has already happened this month: it occurred on March 2–3, 2026, with the main phases on March 3 in Universal Time.

Quick Scoop

For the March 2–3, 2026 total lunar eclipse (the recent “Blood Moon”):

• The penumbral phase (when the Moon first starts to dim) began at about 08:44 UTC on March 3.

• The partial eclipse (a clear “bite” out of the Moon) started around 09:50 UTC.

• Totality (when the Moon was fully in Earth’s shadow and turned red) ran from about 11:04 to 12:03 UTC , with maximum around 11:33 UTC.

Because eclipse times are given in UTC, the exact start on your clock depends on your time zone and location; some regions could not see this eclipse at all (for example, much of Europe and Africa).

If you want the start time for your specific city for future eclipses , you’ll need to plug your location into an eclipse calculator provided by astronomy sites like timeanddate.com or NASA’s eclipse pages, which convert the global UTC schedule into local times and visibility.

TL;DR: The most recent total lunar eclipse started with penumbral contact around 08:44 UTC and reached full “Blood Moon” totality at 11:04 UTC on March 3, 2026; check a location-based eclipse tool to see when (or if) it was visible from your area.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.