The much awaited celestial event, which is widely known as ‘blood moon’, will be visible from all parts of India on the night of July 27, 2018, and the early hours of July 28…
The ‘blood moon’ is being billed as the longest lunar eclipse of this century, when the moon will be seen coloured in a reddish hue.
According to reports, the eclipse will be visible in two parts. The first one will be a total lunar eclipse that would last an hour and 43 minutes, followed by a partial one, which will last a little more than an hour, and lunar eclipse is acclaimed to be 40 per cent longer than any other ‘blood moon’ measured in recent times.
“Viewers in India are lucky since the eclipse, both partial and total will be entirely visible from all parts of the country” said the Director, Research and Academic, MP Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, MP Birla Planetarium, Debiprosad Duari.
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The partial eclipse of the moon would start at 11.54pm Indian Standard Time on July 27, and total eclipse would begin at around 1am on July 28.
According to reports, on July 28, the moon would look the darkest and the phase will continue until 2.43am. Followed by this eclipse, the partial one will start again around 3.49am and at 4.58am the penumbral eclipse will end.
During the total lunar eclipse on July 27, the moon has to pass through the central part of the earth’s darkest shadow, which is known as ‘umbra’. But on the night, the full moon would be near its apogee, the furthest point from the Earth in its orbit around the Earth and it would be the smallest full moon of the year, rather this phase of eclipse can be consider as a ‘micro blood moon’ eclipse. The distance of the moon from the earth just before the eclipse would be around 406,223km, reported sources.
During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon’s disk can take on a dramatically colourful appearance from bright orange to scarlet red and more rarely dark brown to a bit greyish. This phase is totally depended upon the part of the earth’s shadow, the moon would be passing through, and that is why, at times, a total eclipsed moon is called as ‘Blood Moon’.
A lunar eclipse takes place during full moon. Whenever, the Earth is aligned directly with the Sun and Moon, and as the Sunrays falls on the Earth, the Earth’s shadow falls onto a path of space, and only then, the Moon enters that patch of shadow and we see a lunar eclipse. The last lunar eclipse took place earlier this year on January 31, which was widely known as ‘Super Blue Blood Moon’.
According to sources, the next total lunar eclipse will be seen on January 21, 2019 and is expected to be visible only for one hour and two minutes, as the Moon will pass to the north of the shadow’s centre.
After the Blood Moon phase, another spectacular celestial event will enthral millions of people around the world. On July 31, four days later, the forth planet from the Sun, Mars will be 57.6 million kilometres from the Earth, the closest it has been since 2003 when it came within 55.7 million kilometres, according to earlier reports, which was the closest in almost 60,000 years.
Mars will be visible in the night sky after sunset until sunrise everywhere in India, however, this will be possible only if the monsoon sky does not play spoilsport!
It will be an excellent opportunity for celestial enthusiast in India, as the double celestial event will come up this month.
