May 5 Lunar Eclipse Will Not Be Visible To Naked Eyes In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: This year’s first lunar eclipse will occur on May 5. Unlike the exceptionally rare hybrid solar eclipse on April 20,  this penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible in Odisha but skygazers will have to use telescope or binocular to watch this celestial event.

“In a penumbral eclipse, the lighter outer part of Earth’s shadow falls on the moon. So this is a subtle kind of eclipse and will not be visible to naked eyes,” Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium Subhendu Pattnaik told Odisha Bytes.

He further said that the Moon will pass through the Earth’s shadow between 8.45 pm on Mar 5 and 1 am on May 6. The maximum eclipse will occur at 10.52 pm, he added.

Some of the regions that would be able to witness some parts of the lunar eclipse are Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.

Pattnaik further said that lunar eclipses are generally visible in more parts of the world than solar eclipses since the Earth is much larger than the Moon and so is its shadow.