July 27 will be witness to the century’s longest lunar eclipse and will get a reddish hue, often known as a ‘blood moon’.
In India, the moon will be visible on the intervening night July 27 and July 28 and will be visible for 1 hour and 43 minutes. Astronomers anticipate that the partial eclipse will last for 3 hours and 55 minutes — from around 10.44 pm to 4.58 am.
According to GQ India, it can be seen in its entirety in India at around 1.52 am on June 28, and last till 2.43 am.
A lunar eclipse is when the moon comes in the earth’s shadow. At this time, the sun, moon and the earth are in one line, with the earth in the middle. Due to this, the shadow of the earth is on the moon, on which the sun casts a red light which causes the reddish hue we see, which is why it is called a ‘blood moon’. The moon appears red because of an effect known as ‘Rayleigh scattering’.
The blood moon will be visible in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand — the eastern hemisphere, but not in America.
According to Financial Express, this blood moon will be 40 minutes longer than the one in January. January saw a super blue blood moon — an occurrence of a lunar trilogy - a Supermoon, lunar eclipse and a Blue Moon.
July also sees another historic astronomic event — Mars will be close to earth in 15 years, and will reportedly appear larger and brighter. The distance will reportedly be 57.58 million km on July 30. The distance between Earth and Mars is usually 225 million km. According to TIME, this is the closest Mars will get to Earth at least until 2035, 18 years away.