Lunar eclipse in January 2019: The New Year started with a partial solar eclipse which was not visible in India. And now, just days into the New Year, we have two more celestial phenomena taking place at the same time. Say hello to a lunar eclipse and a supermoon sharing the limelight high in the skies on Monday morning (January 21).
What’s more is that this particular lunar eclipse is of the blood moon variant, that is the Moon will turn red during the lunar eclipse. The January 20-21 total lunar eclipse is the 18th total lunar eclipse since 2001, the beginning of this century.
While we get two to five supermoons every year, the gap between blood moons is anywhere between six months and three years. The rare coming together of the supermoon and a blood moon lunar eclipse is being named the ‘Super Blood Wolf Moon’.
The rare event will not be visible from India, but you can log on to streaming websites that will broadcast the blood moon meeting supermoon.
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How will it happen?
The Moon, Earth and Sun will line up this weekend for the 2019 total lunar eclipse. At the same time, the Moon will be closer to the Earth and appear bigger and brighter than usual, thus resulting in a supermoon. Sounds super magical! The Moon will be completely covered by the Earth’s shadow for over 60 minutes. However, the entire eclipse, along with the partial phases, will last 5 hours and 12 minutes.If the skies are clear, the eclipse will be visible in North and South America, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal along with the French and Spanish coasts. The rest of Europe, as well as Africa, will have partial viewing before the Moon show ends. And no, you do not need to re-read the last sentence: India is out of luck this time around as the Super Blood Wolf Moon will not be visible in India. But, you can watch a live stream of the lunar eclipse meeting the supermoon here: https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/
Why the total lunar eclipse is called Blood Moon?
For the entire duration of the lunar eclipse, the Moon will look red because of the sunlight scattering off the Earth’s atmosphere. As a result, the Moon is called the “Blood Moon”. A “Wolf Moon” is simply a folk name for the Moon that rises during January. As for the full-moon supermoon, the one visible this weekend will be the first of three this year. The Moon will be about 357,300 km away from Earth. The next supermoon, on February 19, will be a bit closer and the one in March will be the farthest of the three.
How to watch?
The good news is that blood Moon does not require any eye gear to watch from anywhere if skies are clear enough, unlike solar eclipses that require special eye protection.
Lunar eclipse 2019 in India timings
The partial eclipse will begin at 9.04 am IST on Monday, with the full eclipse starting a little over an hour later. While Asia had a prime viewing last year, when two total lunar eclipses occurred, this year the continent is not as lucky. Since the spectacular view will be barred for the Indian subcontinent, technology can allow you to see it while it’s happening from the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome. Might as well make the effort to see it as the next total lunar eclipse won’t be until May 2021.
