Skywatchers looking forward to complete lunar eclipse

The eclipse will be visible to people in Europe, Africa and the Middle East on July 27 between sunset and midnight.

But the eclipse won’t be visible to those in North America. Science experts claim that this time, it will cast the moon into shadow for 1 hour and 43 minutes, with the entire event lasting over 6 hours and this handsome phenomenon will be visible across the world.

Beside Lake Magadi, 100 kilometres (62 miles) southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, husband and wife team Susan Murabana and Chu Owen set up their high-powered telescope for the local community to watch the event. In India, it is expected to begin from 11:44 pm IST on July 27. Teddy Muthusi, as he watched from Uhuru Park in Nairobi, said: “This is what life is all about: Magical moments like this. It’s well worth it”. Enthusiasts watched through telescopes at the Marina South Pier in Singapore and at the Al Sadeem Observatory in Al Wathba near Abu Dhabi. “The next total lunar eclipse that will last that long will not occur until 2123”, he noted.

Dr Gregory Brown, of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: ‘We miss a section of the eclipse due to the moon being below our horizon when it starts.

Path of the Moon into Earth’s Shadows and the times during the Total Lunar Eclipse on July 28 from Brunei DarussalamLooking about West at around 2am from Brunei Darussalam, the Blood Moon and Mars will put on a stellar show on July 28. Read on to find out all you need to know about the blood moon tonight.

Whether a full moon turns coppery red depends entirely on the atmospheric conditions and how much dust is in the air to bounce off the light from the sun.

“People in Jammu and Kashmir, and Tamil Nadu are most likely to be able to witness the event clearly”, Aniket Sule, chair of the Public Outreach and Education Committee (POEC) of Astronomical Society of India, told PTI.

Our neighbouring planet will appear unusually large and bright, a mere 57.7 million kilometres (35.9 million miles) from Earth on its elliptical orbit around the sun.

For thousands of years, man has looked to the heavens for omens of doom, victory and joy.

The next total lunar eclipse will occur on January 19 2019. It happens because, when the sunlight enters Earth’s atmosphere which is blocking, the light gets refracted in such a way that the green to violet wavelengths on the visible spectrum scatter more strongly than the red, thus giving the moon a reddish cast.

“For those new to astronomy, the evening may prove to be a mesmerising introduction to core scientific principles”, said Dr Daniel Cunnama, science engagement astronomer at the SAAO.

However, there still is a way using which it is possible to view the “blood moon” – live stream on YouTube.