Penumbral Lunar Eclipse tonight

The eclipse on the night between September 16 and 17,  will be sighted in different parts of Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa.

The lunar eclipse will be of three hours i.e from 9:55 pm to 01:54 am, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had earlier said in a statement.

What is penumbral lunar eclipse?

A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves through the faint, outer part of the Earth’s shadow. This type of eclipse is often mistaken for a normal full Moon.

There are three kinds of lunar eclipse: Partial, total, and penumbral. They’re a result of the moon passing directly behind the Earth into its shadow, placing the Earth between the moon and the sun. But a penumbral lunar eclipse is very distinct from the other two types of the lunar eclipse. In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth’s umbra (the dark part of its shadow) covers the moon completely, while in a partial eclipse, just part of the moon is covered by the Earth’s umbra.

The umbra and penumbra refer to different parts of a shadow — and that’s a big distinction here. In the case of the penumbral lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks some of the sunlight and stops it from hitting the moon. As a result, the Earth covers part of the moon with its penumbra. Other than this shadow, the moon sighted as bright as a full moon normally would be. In fact, it can be hard to tell the difference between a regular full moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse.

The last penumbral lunar eclipse was March 23, 2016. The next lunar eclipse will be Feb. 10, 2017 — and it’ll be another penumbral lunar eclipse.