The moon is set to be totally eclipsed and turn red for about 14 minutes on May 26. The total lunar eclipse will be visible in Australia, parts of the western US, western South America, or in South-East Asia, as per a report of Time and Date. As the eclipse occurs a few hours after the moon is the closest to the Earth on its orbit or reaches perigee, it makes this a Super Flower Blood Moon. The full moon in May is called the Flower Moon, hence the name. It is also popularly called Blood Moon due to the red tinge on the celestial body when it’s fully eclipsed.
This total lunar eclipse also marks the beginning of an ‘almost tetrad’ as it inaugurates the series of four big lunar eclipses in two years.
All you need to know:
The total eclipse of the moon takes place at full moon when the Sun, the Earth and Moon are parallel to each other forming a line. This type of alignment is called a syzygy, which is an astronomical term coming from the Greek word for being paired together.
During the total lunar eclipse, the Earth comes in between the Sun and the Moon blocking all the direct sunlight that could fall upon the Earth’s natural satellite. This blockage of the sunlight casts the Earth’s shadow on the surface of the Moon.
The moon looks red during the total lunar eclipse because while passing through the earth’s atmosphere, the sunlight is refracted towards the Earth’s surface and its colours with shorter wavelengths get scattered and filtered out. But the colours with longer wavelengths like red and orange passes. through the atmosphere. This light is then again refracted towards the surface of the full moon which is totally eclipsed, giving it a reddish-orange glow, as per the report.
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Time and Date suggests that the magnitude of the eclipse is 1.009 and the total duration of the eclipse is 5 hours and two minutes, while the duration of the full eclipse is 14 minutes. The duration of partial phases is two hours and 53 minutes.
The total lunar eclipse will not be visible in Delhi as the moon will be below the horizon there for some of the time, according to the Time and Date report.
To see the eclipse no visual equipment is required, unlike the solar eclipse. Lunar eclipses are safe to see with the naked eye.