Much to the delight of celestial lovers, the longest lunar eclipse of this century will be happening through Friday and Saturday. While the eclipse will be for over 6 hours, the total lunar eclipse — when the moon will be in the middle of earth’s shadow — will last for 1 hour and 43 minutes. Around 12.30 am, totality will begin. For the next hour or so, the moon will be completely inside Earth’s shadow.
This is estimated to be the longest total lunar eclipse until June 9, 2123. Moreover, this eclipse will be the Blood Moon, a phenomenon that sees the moon take a reddish hue.
This happens as the direct sunlight to the moon is blocked by the earth, which results in the moon going dark and only the sunlight, scattered by the earth’s atmosphere, getting reflected.
The longest total lunar eclipse of the previous century happened on July 16, 2000. It had lasted nearly four minutes longer, at 1 hour and 46.4 minutes.
On Friday night, the centres of the three celestial bodies — sun, moon and earth — will be in an almost straight line, an arrangement called a syzygy. The moon will also be near its farthest point from earth — i.e. apogee — and so appear to be at its smallest. As a result, it will take the satellite more time to cross earth’s shadow, making the eclipse last longer.
On July 27, the night sky will also be graced by a brighter Mars due to its being very close to the earth this time of the year.
People in Asia, including India, and Africa will have the best view of the eclipse. Those in Europe, South America and Australia will see partial views. It will not be visible in North America and Antarctica. One can watch the event with naked eyes, but as it is the rainy season in Delhi, clouds may disrupt the show.
Earlier this year on January 31, the country witnessed a lunar eclipse that was known as Super Blue Blood Moon. This lunar eclipse will be a dark one. Next total lunar eclipse to be seen in the country will happen only on September 7, 2025, said N Sri Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society, India.
What will also contribute to the extraordinarily long event is the moon’s position near its apogee, or the farthest point from the earth in its orbit. The distance between the moon and the earth will be around 4,06,223km that night.