Paris: A “Blood Moon” will bathe a big swath of the world in a red light on Thursday night during a rare total lunar eclipse.
Skygazers will be able to see celestial spectacles in the US and Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as well as in parts of Western Europe and Africa.
This is the first total lunar eclipse since 2022, but will be another in September.
The phenomenon occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are line up, and our planet puts a huge shade in its satellite.
But as the Earth’s shadow creeps beyond the moon, it does not completely stress its white glow.
Instead it changes a red color as sunlight filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere is removed from the lunar surface.
The lunar eclipse will last about six hours.
But the period when the moon is completely in the shade of the Earth – called the overallity – will be more than just one hour.
In North America, the Moon will appear to look in such a way that a bite is being taken out of the eastern time (0509 GMT) at 1:09 pm, according to NASA, the totality will be between 2:26 to 3:31 pm.
According to the French Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Affemeris calculation, in France, the totality will be from local time (0626-0731 GMT) 7:26 AM-8: 31AM.
However only the most western parts of Europe will get any chance to see the totality before the moon set.
And of course, getting a chance to see the moon will depend on the clear sky.
Two weeks later, some people in the world will be treated for a partial solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon removes sunlight on the earth.
The eclipse will appear in Eastern Canada, Europe, Northern Russia and parts of North -West Africa on 29 March.
It is also dangerous to see a partial solar eclipse with naked eyes – curious sky gazers are advised to use special eclipse glasses or pinhole projector.
