Sky-gazers can get to watch the partial lunar eclipse here on the intervening night of July 16 and 17.
According to the Pondicherry Science Forum, astronomy buffs in India can watch a partial eclipse of the full moon as it sweeps through part of the Earth’s dark umbral shadow.
The eclipse will be visible from India and many other countries of Asia, Africa, parts of Europe and South America during the wee hours of July 17. In India, the penumbral eclipse begins at 12:13 a.m. on July 17.
The partial eclipse will begin at 1:31 a.m. and the maximum eclipse will occur at 3 a.m. The partial lunar eclipse will end at 4:29 a.m. The penumbral eclipse ends at 5:47 a.m.
The total duration of the eclipse is 5 hours and 34 minutes. The duration of the partial eclipse is 2 hours and 58 minutes, the Forum said.
Arrangements have been made to watch the spectacular event on telescopes at the Dr Abdul Kalam Planetarium at Lawspet, on July 16 night from 7 p.m. to the actual eclipse timings.
Apart from merely viewing, there will be presentations and detailing by experts from Puducherry Science Forum and Department of Science & Technology. A lunar eclipse can only happen at full moon, because that’s the only time the moon can be directly opposite of the sun in Earth’s sky. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon, but the three celestial objects do not form exactly a straight line.
When this happens, a small part of the Moon's surface is covered by the darkest, central part of the Earth's shadow, called the umbra, the Forum said.
On July 17, the full moon travels through the Earth’s outer faint penumbral shadow before and after partially sweeping through the Earth’s inner dark umbral shadow.
However, the penumbral stage of the eclipse is so faint that it requires close observation, the Forum added.
This will be the last time that the Earth’s dark shadow touches the moon’s surface until May 26, 2021.
In 2020, even though there are four lunar eclipses due to occur, all of them will be hard-to-see penumbral eclipses.