Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday

The Moon started to come under the earth's shadow on Wednesday as lunar eclipse, the first to take place in over two years, began. A few hours later, the Moon will be fully covered by the Earth, resulting in total lunar eclipse. While the total lunar eclipse will last for about 15 minutes, the entire event will go on for five hours.The total lunar eclipse  will be visible in several countries as the Moon turns into a bloodmoon. However, India will witness a partial lunar eclipse just after moonrise in the north-eastern states, some parts of West Bengal, some coastal parts of Odisha and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the partial phase of the eclipse will begin at 3.15 pm in India. The total phase of the eclipse will end at 4.58 pm, while the partial phase ends at 6.23 pm. The lunar eclipse occurs on a full moon day when the Earth comes in between the Sun and the Moon, blocks the sun’s rays from directly reaching the satellite. The moon is fully in the Earth’s shadow and this is why it is a total lunar eclipse.

In India, the total eclipse will not be visible. Only the partial eclipse, “which takes place as the Moon moves into and out of Earth’s shadow” will be visible in parts of Eastern India, Nepal, western China, Mongolia, and eastern Russia.The eclipse will be seen in Agartala, Aizawl, Kolkata, Cherrapunji, Cooch Behar, DiamondHarbour, Digha, Guwahati, Imphal, Itanagar, Kohima, Lumding, Malda, North Lakhimpur, Paradee, Pashighat, Port Blair, Puri, Shillong, Sibsagar and Silchar.

A lunar #eclipse is sometimes called a "blood moon," but the actual source of the red color is quite gentle: it's light filtered through all the sunrises and sunsets on Earth. Here's our video guide to #LunarEclipse2021 and how to see it on May 26: https://t.co/sDNOcwAxcF pic.twitter.com/cNYkKLCPho

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) May 24, 2021