There will be a total lunar eclipse around the midnight of July 27, 2018. This time the moon will pass right through the centre of the earth’s shadow which will make it the first central lunar eclipse after the one in June 2011. It is occurring at a time when the moon is at its farthest distance from the earth and so it will be the longest total lunar eclipse in this century. The totality itself will last for an hour and 43 minutes.

As such the eclipse is visible from a ring of countries in Africa, Central Asia, South America, Europe and Australia. In particular this can be seen from all over the country when there are no clouds.

The eclipse itself will begin a little before midnight at about 11.15 p.m. (IST) (Penumbral Eclipse begins at 22:44:47 at Hyderabad). This is what is called the first contact when the partial lunar eclipse begins. After this the moon will get deeper and deeper into the earth’s shadow. The greatest part of the lunar eclipse happens at 51 minutes 44 seconds past midnight (IST). Then slowly the eclipse will start decreasing and finally at about 3.58 a.m. of the 28th of July the eclipse would be in the partial phase for one hour and 9 minutes.

Although in theory during the total lunar eclipse the moon should disappear, this does not happen in practice. This is because though the sun is being blocked by the earth sunlight passes through the earth’s atmosphere, gets bent and manages to reach the moon. In this process it is the reddish brownish colors that survive and so the moon glows with a reddish brownish hue. This is sometimes called the Blood Moon for this reason.

There are many superstitions regarding eclipses, for example that we should not eat anything during the event or pregnant women should not see it. These are little more than old women’s tales.

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