Moon calendar 2027

2 August: a total solar eclipse in Spain

It is the great astronomical event of the year in Spain. The path of totality crosses the Strait of Gibraltar from west to east: Ceuta, Melilla, much of the province of Cádiz and the Málaga coast will see the Sun fully covered for a few minutes in mid-morning. Elsewhere in Spain the eclipse will be a deep partial one, with more than 70% of the Sun's disc covered.

Looking at the Sun without protection damages your eyes, during a partial eclipse too. Use only certified eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2) or projection methods; sunglasses are not enough. Only during totality, and only inside the path, can you look without a filter, and you must put it back on as soon as the Sun reappears.

Official local time (mainland Spain, Ceuta and Melilla: CEST; Canary Islands: one hour less)

6 February: an annular solar eclipse, seen as annular in South America (Chile, Argentina) and the Atlantic. From the Canary Islands it will look like a small partial eclipse at sunset (11% of the disc covered in Las Palmas); in the south of mainland Spain, just a tiny bite as the Sun sets.

The lunar eclipses

All three lunar eclipses of 2027 are penumbral: the Moon only passes through Earth's penumbra and darkens very slightly, often too little to notice with the naked eye.

• 21 February: visible from Spain, with the maximum at 00:12 (mainland time). It coincides with a supermoon.
• 18 July: not visible from Spain, because the Moon is below the horizon.
• 17 August: not visible from Spain, because the Moon is below the horizon.

The supermoons of 2027

By the usual criterion —a full moon at 90% or more of its closest approach to Earth in that orbit— 2027 has two supermoons: 22 January and 21 February. The Vialunis app, which only flags full moons closer than 361,500 km, marks the January one, the closest of the year (about 357,600 km).

Month by month

Official mainland time (CET in winter, CEST in summer; one hour less in the Canary Islands). Next to each phase, the sign the Moon is in in the tropical zodiac, as in the app; for full moons, the card the Golden Dawn links to that sign.

The sign and the card of each moon are a symbolic reading for reflection, not a prediction: neither the Moon nor the cards decide what will happen to you.

Sources and method

1. Phases: U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), “Phases of the Moon”, 2027. aa.usno.navy.mil
2. Eclipses: NASA, eclipse tables 2021–2030 by Fred Espenak. eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
3. The 2 August eclipse in Spain: Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), local circumstances. astronomia.ign.es
4. Supermoons: Fred Espenak, AstroPixels (“Full Moon at Perigee”). astropixels.com
5. The figures on this page are computed with astronomy-engine, the same ephemeris the app uses. The phase times agree with USNO's to within a minute or two, and the eclipse times with IGN's to within a few seconds. github.com

Keep exploring

• Solar Eclipse
• Lunar Eclipse
• Supermoon
• Full Moon
• Lunar Academy
• November's supermoon
• The card of 2027: Justice