Total Lunar Eclipse 21 February, 2008

Total Lunar Eclipse 21 February, 2008 - Not Visible in India in majority of States

The eclipse will be visible in the region covering Arctic, Western parts of Asia, most of Arabia, Africa except Madagascar, Europe and Americas. This is the last total lunar eclipse until December 2010.

The beginning of the umbral phase will be visible from the Indian Ocean, Crozet Island, Mauritius, Maldives, extreme north western tip of India, western parts of Russia. The ending will be visible from the Pacific Ocean, western parts of Alaska and extreme north eastern parts of Russia.

For India eclipse will begin when the moon will be near the western horizon. Hence only the beginning of the partial phase of the eclipse will be visible at the extreme north- western parts of the country. Places where beginning of the umbral phase (when moon enters umbra the darkest part of earths shadow) will be seen are Bhuj, Dwarka, Jamnagar, Jaisalmer, Lakhpat, Porbandar.

According to Indian Standard Time the Eclipse begins at 6.05 a.m. on 21st February, 2008 and would end at 11.47 a.m. passing through penumbral, umbral and total phases.

Moon Enters the Total phase of eclipse at 8.30 a.m. and leaves totality at 9.21 a.m.

In other Words :

Eclipse begins at 6.05 a.m. when moon enters the penumbra. it will enter into umbral phase 7.13 a.m. After Total Phase which lasts for 51 minutes and at 10.39 a.m. Moon leaves umbra. Finally 11.47 a.m.will mark the end of eclipse when moon leaves penumbra.

Why it is Visible in few places in india ?

Moon Setting time for
Bhuj is 7.19 a.m.
Dwarka is 7.21 a.m.
Jamnagar 7.17 a.m.
Jaislmer 7.18 a.m.
Lakhpat 7.24 a.m.
Porbander 7.19 a.m.

As seen (below) from other corners of the country moon sets early before the it enters umbra.

Delhi - 6h 54m Kanyakumari - 6h 34m
Kolkata 6h 2m Bhopal 6h 47m

Major parts of the country Moon sets before 7. a.m. (in Hyderabad at 6.38 a.m.) Thus missing out the opportunity to witness this celestial event even though eclipse begins at 6.05 a.m. with moon entering penumbra (ligher pale shadow of earth) which it is not much noticeable until moon starts entering umbra.



Can You Tell us in layman's Language what is Umbra and Penumbra ?
If one looks at Earth’s shadow cone closely one can see that there are two distinct parts to it. A pale outer shadow called the penumbra and a smaller inner, dark shadow called the umbra.

The penumbral phase of the eclipse is never very noticeable so people start watching Moon when it begins to enter the umbral phase.




Kindly click here to see our latest article on Partial Lunar Eclipse on 16th/17th August, 2008.

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