Blood Moon 2018: Century’s longest lunar eclipse of 1 hour 43 minutes seen

Blood Moon 2018 or century’s (2001 AD to 2100 AD) longest total lunar eclipse of 1 hour 43 minutes occurred on July 27-28, 2018. The rare celestial event was visible from all parts of India. It was majorly seen in Eastern Hemisphere including Central Asia, Eastern Africa and South East Asia. The partial eclipse of Moon began on July 27, 2018. Moon was gradually covered by Earth’s shadow and totality phase was seen on July 28 and total eclipse lasted up to 2h 43m. The Moon came out of Earth’s shadow and partial eclipse ended on July 28, 2018.

Longest Total Lunar Eclipse

In this particular eclipse, Moon passed through central part of Earth’s umbral shadow. During this time, Moon was located at apogee (i.e. at farthest from Earth) in its orbit and moved at slower speed in its orbit. During this transition phase, it took longer time for Moon and greater distance of Earth’s umbral shadow to travel, making it longest duration of total eclipse of this century. Such long duration of total lunar eclipses earlier had occurred on July 16, 2000 for totality duration of 1 hour 46 minutes and on June 15, 2011 for totality duration of 1 hour 40 minutes.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2018