Third Lunar Eclipse of 2020: Interesting facts, date, time, visibility; all you need to know

With the third lunar eclipse this year, the rare phenomenon of Troika will be completed.

Chandra Grahan 2020: After two consecutive lunar eclipses and one solar eclipse, a third lunar eclipse is set to take place this week. Just like Strawberry Moon witnessed exactly a month ago, June 5 to be more precise, this week’s lunar eclipse is also penumbral and will take place on July 5. What’s more interesting is that the phenomenon which occurs once or twice in a year, is taking place four times in 2020. It is to note that this lunar eclipse will also mark a phenomenon which is known as Troika. This means that three eclipses take place in a short span of time.

Last month, on June 5, a lunar eclipse took place followed by a solar eclipse on June 21. With the third lunar eclipse this year, the rare phenomenon of Troika will be completed.

Now it is important to understand what exactly a lunar eclipse is. Notably, during a lunar eclipse, the positioning of the Sun, Earth and the Moon is usually in one line with Earth between the other two. When this happens, Earth is capable of blocking the sun’s light which eventually leads to the Moon being overshadowed.

There are three types of lunar eclipses that take place- total, partial and penumbral. Just like the name suggests, during total eclipse, the sunlight falling on the Moon is completely blocked which causes the Moon’s invisibility. During a partial eclipse, light falls on some part of the Moon and therefore it is somewhat visible. However, during a penumbral eclipse, which is this year’s eclipse also, the Moon will travel to the Earth’s penumbra and faint a bit.

According to information by Time and Date, the eclipse will be visible by South/West Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Antarctica. This means that those living in India will not be able to witness this week’s lunar eclipse.

The lunar eclipse will take place at 8:37 am IST and will reach its peak by 9:59 am IST. The expected ending of lunar eclipse is slated at 11:22 am IST.