Happy 2026 everyone! With the end of 2025 giving us some spectacular views of our closest heavenly body, namely Supermoons, on 7th October, 5th November and 4th December, you’ll possibly be pleased to know that we have a few more heavenly events coming up in the next 365 days!
We’ve already experienced the first of our Supermoons for this year with a beautiful one on 3rd January – the Wolf moon. Hanging low in the sky over our dunes, it certainly made braving the cold night air worth it for a glimpse! However, we’ll have to wait until the end of this year before we see another as the next two for this year are forecast for 24th November with the Beaver Supermoon and then 23rd December for the Cold Supermoon. The latter should, hopefully, still be gracing our skies over Christmas.
We also have a couple of eclipses coming up this year, with an Annular solar eclipse on 17th February which will result in a ring of light around the darkened moon, caused because the moon will not be far enough away from the earth to completely cover the Sun, a total Lunar eclipse on 3rd March and a partial on 28th August. Unfortunately, these three events will not be visible in the UK, though I am certain our media will ensure we get some good shots to look at!
31st May gives us a Blue Moon – nothing to do with the colour – just the rarity that we will have two full moons in the month.
Then, on 12th August, there will be a total solar eclipse. For our European cousins, this will be the first total eclipse they will have been able to witness this century. For ourselves here in the UK though, we will only get a partial eclipse (expected in our area from around 18.00). For a total solar eclipse in the UK, we’ll have to wait until 23rd September 2090!
Lastly, there is NASA’s exciting new Artemis program. Aiming to re-establish a human presence on the Moon since the Apollo mission in 1972 (was it really over 50 years ago?!), this currently aims to kick off with a launch on 6th February – although this date is dependent on the successful completion of a large number of tests, apparently. Whether we will have anything to watch out for in our skies remains to be seen. However, the long-term goal of this program is to establish a permanent base on the Moon, so it seems that in the not-too-distant future we will be viewing this familiar orb of light in our heavens with a very different perspective!
Take care and stay safe!
LR
