24 June : This year’s first partial lunar eclipse will occur on 26th June when more than 50 per cent of the full moon disc will be under earth’s shadow, but it will be visible only in the Northeast in India.
“The moon will rise in Kolkata around 6:25 pm, but only the end phase of the eclipse will be visible in the Northeast, including Assam,” M P Birla Planetarium Director (Research and Academics) Debiprosad Duari said in Kolkata on Thursday.
The eclipse will be visible in Eastern Asia, Australia, Antarctica, parts of America and the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, he said.
The partial lunar eclipse will start around 3.46 pm and continue till 6:20 pm, during which more than 50 per cent of the moon will be within the main umbral shadow.
Kolkatans last viewed a lunar eclipse on 31st December, 2009. The next lunar eclipse will occur on 21st December this year in India.
Sky watchers in India will have to wait till 15th June, 2011 to watch a total lunar eclipse which will be seen in its entirety from India and neighbouring countries, Duari said.
