When it comes to Lunar eclipse , you may have three character . The total occultation , with the characteristic red blood colour the Moon takes , happens when the lunar surface is completely within the apparition of the Earth . The partial occultation is where only portions of the Moon are covered by our major planet ’s tincture . And then there is the penumbral eclipse when the Moon bilk the penumbra cast by Earth . The penumbra is the " almost shadow " of our planet .
A penumbral occultation is happening on May 5 , 2023 , and it will be seeable everywhere on Earth aside from the Americas and a bit of the North - West of Europe . The best thought will be for the great unwashed in Australia , China , Japan , those around the Indian Ocean , and South East Asia . That ’s about83 percentof the world ’s population . But what are you actually seeing during a penumbral eclipse ?
The Moon , over the course of a yoke of hours , will become dimmer as 96.4 percent of the surface of our natural satellite passes through the penumbra . This is not a full shadow ( umbra ) so the Moon will not become dark . heavenly objects are not always perfectly aligned during eclipses , so it is possible for eclipsing bodies ( in this case the Earth ) to only partially shroud the Sun . If you were on the surface of the Moon , you ’d be seeing the Earth ’s disk covering part of the Sun but not all of it .
Here on Earth , the Moon will seem dimmer but the gist is not as stark as when the actual shadow covers the Moon . The best time to see the effect is when the occultation is well underway , with one sphere being brighter than the ease .
The occultation will last for four hr 17 minutes and 31 instant . It starts at 3:14 pm UTC and the moon will be almost totally in the penumbra around 5:22 atomic number 61 . This is the last of four lunar eclipse of the Metonic hertz that befall on the same date , around May 5 , every 19 days .
The next lunar eclipse will be a fond one on October 28 . The next penumbral eclipse will be on March 25 , 2024 , and will be seeable almost alone from the Americas , as if to make up for those peeps who wo n’t be able-bodied to see this one .
