Longest lunar eclipse of the century

The world witnessed the longest lunar eclipse of the century on 27.7.2018, Friday night. The eclipse lasted for one hour 43 minutes and was visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Europe and South America when the Sun, Earth and Moon lined up perfectly, casting Earth’s shadow on the moon.

This phenomenon has earned the nickname ‘Blood moon’ because the moon turns red or ruddy brown when Earth covers the moon with its shadow. Coincidently, Mars was also at its brightest, putting two bright red objects in the sky.

Brad Tucker, an astronomer with the Australian National University’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics said, “The moon is not always in perfect alignment with the Sun and the Earth, so that is why we do not get a lunar eclipse every lunar cycle.

You will see the sunrise and sunset of the Earth lighting up the surface of the Moon -over 3,50,000 km away. If you were the Moon, you would see a total solar eclipse as the Earth would be blocking the Sun.”

According to NASA, India will witness the next total lunar eclipse on 7th September 2025 but the total lunar eclipse of 26th June, 2029 which will be a total of one hour and 42 minutes will not be visible to India.