Rare red northern lights may be visible alongside red moon during tomorrow night's partial lunar eclipse

A striking red aurora may be visible to some skywatchers alongside tomorrow night's blood-red partial lunar eclipse , astronomers say.

The full moon is expected to slide into Earth's shadow tomorrow night (Aug. 27-28), casting an eerie red glow over 96% of the lunar surface. At the same time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm warning for 9:03 p.m. EDT (1303 GMT) Thursday night (Aug. 27) — 20 minutes before the eclipse starts. According to NOAA , the resulting auroras may be visible over several states, ranging from New York to Idaho.

However, skywatchers farther north have better odds of catching both spectacular sights together.

"Though it's unlikely the moon and aurora would occupy the same part of the sky, observers in Canada and Alaska have the best chance to see them together," Tom Kerss , an astronomer and co-author of the " Little Book of Eclipses: An essential companion to solar and lunar events " (Octopus Publishing Group, 2026), told Live Science. "The further west you are, the lower the moon will be in the East during the deepest part of the eclipse, where it may overlap with the brightest region of the auroral oval."

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights , is an atmospheric phenomenon caused by the solar wind ‪—‬ clouds of electrically charged particles spewed from the sun . Most of these particles are deflected by the geomagnetic shield that surrounds our planet, but some get swept into Earth's magnetic field and channeled toward the planet's poles.

Once there, the particles collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, causing them to heat up and glow and producing the mesmerizing light show we know as the northern lights.

The intensity of these lights depends on the strength of the solar wind that hits our planet. Yesterday (Aug. 25), a powerful M-class solar flare — the second-strongest class of solar flare — flashed from a restless sunspot called 4513, according to Live Science's sister website Space.com . This was followed by a large ejection of solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection .

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