However, with the cyclone Yaas affecting these regions on Wednesday, the enthusiasts may not be able to witness the rare celestial event. The ending of this eclipse will be visible for a short span from northeast India-except Sikkim-along with some parts of West Bengal, coastal parts of Odisha and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands, if the weather permits. Since the phenomenon takes place in the afternoon hours, most parts of India will miss it. The regions which are expected to witness the event include South America, North America, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It is also referred to as the Blood Moon as some amount of sunlight manages to falls indirectly on the lunar surface through the Earth's atmosphere, thus giving a red hue. The total duration of the eclipse is expected to be 5 hours, 2 minutes. While the magnitude of a partial or annular solar eclipse is always between 0.0 and 1.0, if the magnitude of is greater than or equal to 1.0, it is considered a total solar eclipse. The magnitude of this eclipse-which determines the fraction of the Moon's diameter covered by the Earth's umbra during an eclipse-is 1.009. A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves through the faint outer part of Earth’s shadow (penumbra) instead of the dark shadow (umbra). Earth’s shadow is composed of two components-a dark inner circle where all of the sunlight is blocked, called the umbra, and an outer zone of the shadow that blocks only part of sunlight, called the penumbra. There are mainly three types of lunar eclipses: total, partial and penumbral.Ī total lunar eclipse happens when the Sun and the Moon are on the two opposite sides of the Earth, while in the partial eclipse, only part of Earth's shadow covers the Moon. This cosmic event usually takes places during a full Moon. The lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, thereby obstructing the sunlight falling on the Moon. The weather conditions in most parts of the country, including east, northeast and southern India, are not favourable for sky gazing as clouds are likely to blanket these regions on Wednesday. Though the eclipse will not be fully visible in India, some parts of the country are likely to witness it only for a short duration. Therefore, the ellipse of May 26 is being referred to as the Super Blood Moon. The eclipse is also happening on the day when the Earth’s natural satellite will be at perigee-among the closest point on its orbit around the Earth-at a distance of just 3,57,311 km from its host planet. It is popularly referred to as the blood moon due to the reddish colour of the full moon. The last total lunar eclipse occurred on January 21, 2019. You can sign up to get notifications of when it is passing over your area in the morning and evening so you can go and look for it if the sky is clear.Nearly two full years after the last total lunar eclipse, the sky gazers are all set to witness a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, May 26. You can subscribe to their daily email to get news about recent astronomical events.Īnother site I like is NASA’s Spot the Station site, which describes where the International Space Station is. They also have sky maps showing where the planets are in the evening and morning sky and the phases of the moon. I often refer to their posts around the equinoxes and solstices because of their clear explanations of what is going on. You can learn more about astronomical events like eclipses, equinoxes, and solstices from EarthSky. Not sure I will get up to see it but if my cat wakes me up, I might go out and take a peek. The only bad thing is that it is supposed to start at around 2:30 AM EST and end around 5:30 AM EST with peak darkness at around 4 AM. Here in the Southeast, I don’t think we will have many clouds so you should be able to see it. In addition to weather, I am also interested in astronomy and am somewhat excited to note that there will be a nearly total (97%) lunar eclipse on the night of November 18-19 that should be visible across North America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |