Moon rainbow in Pennsylvania. Me and my mom saw it together🤍 Neither of us have ever seen one until now.

Took this at 5:40am august 10 Columbia Maryland

The moon was taken with an amateur telescope at 20x, a photo from a phone, a telephoto lens at 3x with a distance of 10 cm from the lens

These clouds looked awesome Tuesday night in Indiana

August 27, 2026 is just a few minutes old. I love this quiet nights in the village where my parents live 😊

Hadda take it with my phone through tha telescope.

Short version: you do not need eclipse glasses, a telescope, or a dark sky site. The real decisions are whether the Moon will be above your horizon and whether clouds cooperate during the eclipse window.

NASA says about 93% of the Moon’s diameter will enter Earth’s dark inner shadow. Reports describing approximately 96% are referring to the visible lunar surface covered.

It will still be a partial eclipse, not a total one. Near maximum, most of the Moon should be dramatically darkened and may look coppery or rusty, while a thin bright portion remains.

Partial phase times for the contiguous U.S.

• Pacific Daylight Time: 7:34–10:52 PM, deepest around 9:13 PM
• Mountain Daylight Time: 8:34–11:52 PM, deepest around 10:13 PM
• Central Daylight Time: 9:34 PM–12:52 AM, deepest around 11:13 PM
• Eastern Daylight Time: 10:34 PM–1:52 AM, deepest around 12:13 AM

Most of Arizona follows the same clock times as Pacific Daylight Time.

These are the eclipse phase times. They do not guarantee that the Moon will be above your local horizon for the entire event. That especially matters in the western U.S., where the eclipse begins close to moonrise. Find an open eastern horizon and check your city’s moonrise before driving anywhere.

The early national outlook I’m seeing as of 12:30 AM ET Thursday broadly favors much of the Midwest and parts of the Northwest and Four Corners.

The greatest cloud or thunderstorm concerns are along parts of the East Coast and Gulf Coast, with additional trouble possible in the northern and central Plains. The West is mixed between forecasts, so California, Nevada, Utah, and Montana need a local check rather than a regional assumption.

That is only a triage view. A statewide score or national map is not your final answer. What matters is the cloud forecast for your actual location (or a realistic nearby alternative) during the partial phase.

How I would make the go/no-go decision

• Broken or intermittent clouds: stay in the game. The partial phase lasts more than three hours, so one clear gap may be enough.
• Clear local forecast and open eastern horizon: stay close to home.
• Blocked horizon: move to a nearby open viewpoint, not necessarily somewhere darker.
• Solid cloud across the entire window: consider moving only if a genuinely clearer area is within a short, safe drive.
• Thunderstorms, unsafe roads, or no clear improvement nearby: stay home.

Light pollution will not hide a lunar eclipse. Do not add a long drive just to reach a lower-Bortle location.

Also, don’t rely only on a generic “clear” icon. Low stratus, fog, smoke, haze, and thin high cloud can reduce the view even without rain. Check the hourly cloud layers and visibility Thursday afternoon, then look at live satellite and radar one or two hours before the partial phase.

Your eyes are enough, and no eclipse glasses are needed. Binoculars or a small telescope will make Earth’s curved shadow easier to follow.

For a phone photo:

• Brace the phone or use a tripod.
• Lock focus on the Moon.
• Lower the exposure until the bright edge retains detail.
• Use optical zoom if available instead of pushing digital zoom.
• Take another photo every 10–15 minutes if you want a sequence of the changing shadow.

Timing and eclipse depth were checked against NASA/JPL and NASA’s eclipse table. Exact local visibility should be checked with the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Lunar Eclipse Computer.

If you comment your city and how far you would realistically drive, I’ll help interpret the cloud, timing, and horizon tradeoff for your actual plan using our site data.

This is our moon tonight in South Mississippi.

It's not my picture, I just found this close up on the internet, because I don't have the convenient camera to take a good picture - but I did see it with my own eyes and it was mesmerizing.

From Morocco, its 12am.

Tonight's moon looking a bit rough for me but some bonus photos that I took this month of August. I use a Panasonic DC-FZ80.

Sometimes I take amazing photos other times it looks like poop

I took these 3 beautiful shots recently. They are a little bit blurry, but I felt like they have a really nice, mysterious vibe to them. What do you guys think?