Watch partial lunar eclipse on August 7 from across India

Kolkata: A partial lunar eclipse will take place on the night of August 7 and will be visible from across the country. “Starting from 10.52 p m, the full moon will enter the Earth’s shadow in space and create a spectacular celestial phenomenon, which is commonly known as partial lunar eclipse. This will be the first properly visible lunar eclipse this year,” Debiprosad Duari, director, Research and Academic, M.P. Birla Planetarium, said here on Saturday. “On February 11 this year, there was a penumbral eclipse of the moon. It was an event where the moon passed not through the direct shadow of the earth but through its periphery and thus it could not be discernible by most of the population,” he said. 

The partial lunar eclipse this time would be visible from the whole of Asia and Australia and most parts of Europe and Africa, Mr Duari said, adding, “People in North and South America will be not be able to see it because it will be daytime there. The lunar eclipse will start at around 10.52 p m, on the night of August 7 and will continue till 00.48 a m IST. “The greatest eclipse, that is when the moon will be covered to the maximum extent, will be around 11.50 p m. The magnitude of the eclipse, which means the fraction of the lunar diameter, will be eclipsed at the greatest eclipse moment at around 0.25 magnitude. The duration of the eclipse will be around 1 hour 55 minutes,” he said.

“In India, the entire eclipse will be visible from every place. For Kolkata, the moonrise will be at around 5.58 p m, and it will be setting on 4.34 a m next day,” Mr Duari said.

A lunar eclipse takes place only at full moon. When the sun, earth and moon come in a perfect straight line and as the Sun’s rays fall on the Earth and its (Earth’s) shadow falls onto a patch of space and the moon enters that patch, a lunar eclipse is seen, he said.

The shadow is composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow, or penumbra, is a zone where Earth’s shadow is partial and blocks some, but not all of the Sun’s rays.

In contrast, the inner shadow, or umbra is a region where the Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. It is only when a part of the Moon passes through the umbra, a partial lunar eclipse is seen.