Odisha To Witness Year’s First Lunar Eclipse Today; Check The Timing

Bhubaneswar: This year’s first lunar eclipse on Friday (May 5) will be visible in Odisha but skygazers will have to use telescope or binocular to watch this celestial event. Reason: It is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse.

“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.

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Moon travels through Earth’s penumbra or the faint outer part of its shadow. It is an area where the Earth appears to cover part of the Sun’s disk but not all of it. This means when the Moon is within the Penumbra, it receives less light from the Sun and is dimmed but still remains somewhat illuminated. The Moon dims so slightly that it can be difficult to notice.

Pattnaik 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.

He 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.