Bhubaneswar: The longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years starts in a few minutes today. The partial eclipse, when the moon will appear blood-red in colour, will start at 12.48 pm and end at 4.17 pm.
But Odisha will not be able to witness this celestial phenomenon, Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium here, Dr Subhendu Pattnaik, earlier this week.
The last lunar eclipse of the year, however, will be visible in parts of Northeast India.
“Odisha will witness penumbral eclipse between 5.12 pm and 5.33 pm. But, we won’t be able to view it. A penumbral eclipse is not as spectacular as a partial eclipse. Besides Odisha, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal will experience the penumbral eclipse,” he said.
A penumbral eclipse occurs when the sun, earth and the moon are imperfectly aligned and only the more diffuse outer shadow of Earth – the penumbra – falls on the moon’s face. It is very subtle and cannot be detected even on a dark and clear night. Only very observant people may notice a dark shading on the moon’s face at mid-eclipse.
According to experts, about 35 per cent of all eclipses are penumbral.
The ending of the partial phase of this eclipse will be visible for a very short span of time just after moonrise in the northeastern parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The duration of the eclipse will be 3 hours 28 minutes and 24 seconds, making it the longest in 580 years.
The maximum partial eclipse will be visible at 2.34 pm as 97 per cent of the moon will be covered by the Earth’s shadow. It will be visible in North America, South America, eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific region and parts of Northeast India.
The last time, such a long partial eclipse occurred was on February 18, 1440. Next time, a similar one will occur on February 8, 2669.
The last lunar eclipse was on July 27, 2018. The next will be on May 16, 2022, but it will not be visible from India.
The next lunar eclipse to be visible from India will be on November 8, 2022.
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