🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA
Unfortunately, Australia largely misses this lunar eclipse because the Moon is below the horizon during the important stages.
Australian readers should not feel completely abandoned by the universe, however, because the Southern Hemisphere still offers spectacular late-winter Milky Way viewing, and the next section of the meteor calendar is beginning.
This simply isn’t Australia’s eclipse.
You cannot win every celestial lottery.
Iceland has apparently stolen most of the tickets this month.
🌕 FULL MOON – AUGUST 28
The eclipse occurs at Full Moon, because lunar eclipses can only happen when Earth sits between the Sun and a Full Moon.
The Moon reaches its Full phase on August 28 at approximately 04:18 UTC, only minutes after maximum eclipse.
That means the eclipse and Full Moon are essentially arriving together.
Throughout August 24–27, the Moon grows from waxing gibbous toward almost complete illumination, which means deep-sky observing becomes increasingly difficult.
Then after August 28, it begins waning again.
This is therefore not the week I would choose for hunting extremely faint galaxies.
It is absolutely the week I would choose for lunar photography.
🌙 Moon Phases This Week
August 24–27
🌔 Waxing Gibbous
The Moon becomes brighter every evening and dominates more of the night sky.
This is excellent for lunar observation but increasingly challenging for faint deep-sky objects.
August 28
🌕 Full Moon + Partial Lunar Eclipse
The Full Moon enters Earth’s shadow, creating the week’s extraordinary eclipse.
August 29–30
🌖 Waning Gibbous
The Moon begins rising progressively later, slowly allowing darker evening skies to return.
☄️ Meteor Activity
There are several smaller details this week that are easy to miss if everyone is staring at the eclipse, so let’s not forget them.
🌠 Perseids – The Final Goodbye
The Perseid meteor shower officially remains active through approximately August 24, meaning Monday gives us the very tail end of the shower.
Do not expect anything resembling the spectacular August 12–13 peak.
Rates will be dramatically lower.
But an occasional Perseid can still appear.
Consider it the astronomical equivalent of the last guest leaving the party while everyone else is stacking chairs.
☄️ Kappa Cygnids
Here is one of the smaller showers that often gets ignored in basic astronomy calendars.
The Kappa Cygnids remain active through approximately August 27.
They produce only a small number of meteors, typically around a few per hour at best, but they are known for occasionally producing bright meteors and fireballs.