BHUBANESWAR: Stargazers and astronomy enthusiasts can look forward to a celestial treat later this week as a partial lunar eclipse will occur on October 28-29. It is the month’s second celestial event after the annular solar eclipse on October 14.
The moon will enter penumbra at 11.31 pm on October 28 and the umbral phase that will start at 1.05 am will end at 2:24 am on October 29. The eclipse will be visible from all places in the country around midnight.
As per a statement issued by Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, it will be a partial lunar eclipse as a part of which the moon comes under the shadow of the Earth and the duration of the eclipse will be one hour 19 minutes with a very small magnitude 0.126.
The eclipse will be visible in the region covering the Western Pacific Ocean, Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, eastern South America, north-eastern North America, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean. “Maximum eclipse will be visible at 1.44 a.m. The moon’s disk will be covered only around six per cent. The event can be seen with the naked eye,” said former deputy director at Pathani Samanta Planetarium Subhendu Patnaik.
The next lunar eclipse that will be visible from India is on September 7, 2025, and it will be a total lunar eclipse. The last lunar eclipse that was visible from the country was on November 8, 2022, and it was a total eclipse. Although two solar and two lunar eclipses will occur in 2024, none of them will be visible to India, informed Patnaik.