Port Blair, Jan.09: The Science Centre, Port Blair shall be arranging telescopic view of Lunar eclipse on 10th January 2020 from 9.00 pm till midnight. The partial lunar eclipse at Port Blair will start at around 10.30 pm when the earth’s Penumbra will start touching the moon’s surface and will end at around 2.40 am on 11th January 2020. The maximum eclipse will be in midnight at around 12.40 am when the moon will be closest to the centre of the shadow of earth.
The lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within Earth’s umbra (shadow). As the eclipse being Earth’s shadow first darkens the Moon slightly. Then, the shadow begins to “cover” part of the Moon turning it a dark red-brown colour (typically-the colour can vary based on atmospheric conditions). Moon appears to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering (the same effect that causes sunset to appear reddish) and the refraction of that light by the earth’s atmosphere into its umbra.