Moonrise Eclipse

Takes place on 31 December 2028. One chance, one evening — the seat decision is the whole plan.

Why the seat matters

Morocco does not get this eclipse from the beginning: greatest eclipse happens while the Moon is still below the horizon, and what rises over the Atlas is a Moon already deep in the umbra, climbing out of the shadow as it climbs out of the mountains. That puts the whole show between two and fifteen degrees of altitude, where haze is thickest and every ridge to the east is fatal. This is the one seat decision in the programme that is purely about what is in the way.

Season

One evening

Best months

A single evening — the last of the year

Cadence

A specific, predictable event.

Base

Marrakech

Dataset note. Contact times are modelled approximations for the simulator. This is a real total lunar eclipse on a real date, but from Morocco totality itself is below the horizon — what this show renders is the umbral partial phase at moonrise, which is what that longitude actually gets.

Every seat, ranked

Seat fit is the simulator’s own score — darkness, open horizon, historical clear-sky odds, altitude and reachability, weighted for what this show cares about. It ranks seats against each other; it is not a forecast for any night. Tap a seat for the full card.

1. 01

   Agafay Desert Rim

   Front row · 31.446°N 8.129°W 76 Bortle4Clear82%Blocked4%

   Seat fit 76/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: altitude.

   A stone desert with a four-percent eastern horizon — you will catch the copper moon within a minute of it clearing the ground. Camp lights are the only threat.

   Elevation

   620 m

   Bortle class

   4

   Sky blocked

   4%

   Historically clear

   82%

   Getting there

   45 min drive + 6 min hike

   Facing

   64°

   Facilities

   camps, toilets at camps, track driving

   See the sky from this seat → Map
2. 02

   Lake Takerkoust

   Front row · 31.356°N 8.133°W 73 Bortle4Clear80%Blocked8%

   Seat fit 73/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: altitude.

   Water in the foreground and the Atlas as a backdrop: the eclipsed moon doubles in the lake. Slightly more obstruction than Agafay for a much better picture.

   Elevation

   630 m

   Bortle class

   4

   Sky blocked

   8%

   Historically clear

   80%

   Getting there

   55 min drive + 3 min hike

   Facing

   68°

   Facilities

   lakeside guesthouses, restaurants, parking

   See the sky from this seat → Map
3. 03

   Oukaïmeden Plateau

   Front row · 31.206°N 7.866°W 73 Bortle2Clear74%Blocked16%

   Seat fit 73/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: open sky.

   Observatory-grade air at 2,600 m. The problem is that the High Atlas is east of you and the eclipsed moon rises straight into it.

   Elevation

   2,600 m

   Bortle class

   2

   Sky blocked

   16%

   Historically clear

   74%

   Getting there

   1 h 45 min drive + 10 min hike

   Facing

   66°

   Facilities

   observatory road, refuges, no fuel above Ourika

   See the sky from this seat → Map
4. 04

   Aït Benhaddou

   Mezzanine · 31.047°N 7.131°W 68 Bortle3Clear84%Blocked12%

   Seat fit 68/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: reachability.

   The driest side of the range and a thousand-year-old ksar to put under the moon. It is three hours over a pass that may be shut.

   Elevation

   1,300 m

   Bortle class

   3

   Sky blocked

   12%

   Historically clear

   84%

   Getting there

   3 h 10 min drive + 12 min hike

   Facing

   67°

   Facilities

   village, hotels, restaurants, parking

   See the sky from this seat → Map
5. 05

   Marrakech Palmeraie

   Balcony · 31.672°N 7.956°W 65 Bortle6Clear83%Blocked18%

   Seat fit 65/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: open sky.

   Palms, a warm room, and twenty minutes of driving. A totally eclipsed moon is faint — city glow costs you the deep colour, not the event.

   Elevation

   480 m

   Bortle class

   6

   Sky blocked

   18%

   Historically clear

   83%

   Getting there

   20 min drive

   Facing

   65°

   Facilities

   hotels, everything, lit roads

   See the sky from this seat → Map
6. 06

   Tizi n'Tichka Pass

   Mezzanine · 31.296°N 7.370°W 65 Bortle3Clear70%Blocked21%

   Seat fit 65/100 — Strong seat. Weakest link: open sky.

   A 2,260 m pass you can drive over with cafes at the top. Ridge lines block a fifth of the sky and winter closures are decided the same morning.

   Elevation

   2,260 m

   Bortle class

   3

   Sky blocked

   21%

   Historically clear

   70%

   Getting there

   2 h 10 min drive

   Facing

   70°

   Facilities

   pass lay-bys, cafes, fuel at Taddert

   See the sky from this seat → Map
7. 07

   Ourika Valley · Setti Fatma

   Mezzanine · 31.224°N 7.690°W 57 Bortle3Clear72%Blocked34%

   Seat fit 57/100 — Workable compromise. Open sky is what you are paying.

   Beautiful, close, and the worst seat in the house for this particular show: a third of your sky is valley wall, exactly where the moon comes up.

   Elevation

   1,500 m

   Bortle class

   3

   Sky blocked

   34%

   Historically clear

   72%

   Getting there

   1 h 15 min drive + 5 min hike

   Facing

   72°

   Facilities

   guesthouses, cafes, parking

   See the sky from this seat → Map
8. 08

   Jemaa el-Fnaa Rooftop

   Balcony · 31.626°N 7.989°W 55 Bortle8Clear83%Blocked30%

   Seat fit 55/100 — Workable compromise. Open sky is what you are paying.

   A mint tea, a terrace, and the Koutoubia in frame. Bortle 8 plus thirty percent rooftop obstruction: you will see it, but you will not see the colour.

   Elevation

   460 m

   Bortle class

   8

   Sky blocked

   30%

   Historically clear

   83%

   Getting there

   no drive

   Facing

   63°

   Facilities

   cafes, rooftop terraces, everything

   See the sky from this seat → Map

What is actually happening

The Moon passes through Earth's umbra and is lit only by sunlight refracted through the whole rim of our atmosphere — every sunrise and sunset on Earth at once, projected onto a rock 384,000 km away. Rayleigh scattering strips the blue out on the way through, so what lands is copper red. The exact shade depends on how much dust and volcanic aerosol is in the stratosphere that year, which is why no two total lunar eclipses look the same.

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