After 580 years, the longest partial lunar eclipse is to occur on November 19th and will be visible in parts of Northeast India.
On November 2, US space agency NASA said that the longest partial lunar eclipse is on the way, taking place overnight on November 18th and 19th, when the Moon slips into Earth’s shadow for a couple of hours.
The maximum partial eclipse will be visible at 2.34 pm as 97% of the moon will be covered by the Earth’s shadow. The moon is likely to appear blood-red in color, which happens when the red beams of the sunlight pass through the Earth’s atmosphere and get least deflected and fall on the moon.
This will occur on Friday, November 19, and will be visible from a few areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The lunar eclipse will start at 12.48 pm and end at 4.17 pm and an astrophysicist said that the last fleeting moments of the partial eclipse just after the moonrise, very close to the eastern horizon.
The eclipse will also be visible from North America, South America, eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific region, and parts of Northeast India.
The last time a partial lunar eclipse of such length occurred was on February 18, 1440, and the next time a similar phenomenon can be witnessed will be on February 8, 2669
The US space agency NASA said, “Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible from any location where the Moon appears above the horizon during the eclipse. Depending on your time zone, it’ll occur earlier or later in the evening for you.”
In India, the rare phenomenon will be visible from a few areas in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, Director of Research and Academic at MP Birla Planetarium Debiprosad Duari told PTI.
The last lunar eclipse was on July 27, 2018. The next lunar eclipse will be on May 16, 2022, but it will not be visible from India. The next lunar eclipse to be visible from India will be on November 8, 2022.
This is the first time after 580 years that the longest partial lunar eclipse is to occur on November 19, which will be visible in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and interestingly, the moon will look blood red.