New Delhi: A rare "Super Flower Blood Moon" will be seen in the eastern sky, including some parts of India, on Wednesday May 26, 2021 evening, just after a total lunar eclipse.
On the night of May 25-27, observers in Oceania, Hawaii, Eastern Asia and Antarctica will see a lunar eclipse that coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth — making it a "Super Moon" eclipse that will turn the Moon reddish — also known as a "Blood Moon", Space.com says in a report.
"The dates of this eclipse span two days because the area it will be visible spans the international date line", it added.
Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun. Usually we see a full Moon when this happens. But every so often the Moon enters the Earth's shadow, resulting in an eclipse.
"This doesn't happen every full Moon because the plane of the Moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees from the plane of the Earth's orbit, and the Moon "misses" the shadow of the Earth", the report said.
According to Debiprasad Duari, renowned astrophysicist and Director of M P Birla Planetarium, the partial eclipse of the moon will start at around 3:15 pm and end at 6:22 pm Indian Standard Time.
For most of India, the Moon will be below the eastern horizon during the total eclipse and so people of the country cannot observe the Blood Moon.
"On that evening, the Moon rise in Kolkata will be at 6:15 pm and the interested people will just possibly get a few minutes glimpse of the partial eclipse which will end at around 6:22 pm," he said.
"For the other metropolis like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai the eclipse will not be seen as during the eclipse phase moon will be below the horizon at these places", he told the news agency PTI.
"Most of the country will have to be satisfied with a penumbral eclipse, which is not very much discernible with naked eye, when moon passes through a slightly shadowed region of the Earth and is not very spectacular," Duari said.
"People can then see a bright and bigger full Moon on that night. At perigee a full Moon looks 30 per cent bigger and 14 per cent brighter than an average full moon. That is the reason the full moon will shine brighter and also look bigger on that night," he said.
The next total lunar eclipse will occur on May 16, 2022, but, it will not be visible from the Indian subcontinent. But on November 8, 2022 a lunar eclipse will be seen from India.
India and most part of the world had a chance to witness a total Lunar Eclipse that was the longest of the 21st century on Friday July 27, 2018.
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