Second lunar eclipse of year to be viewed in Pakistan Tonight

KARACHI: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has said that the second lunar eclipse of this year will be visible between August 7 and 8.

According to PMD, the lunar eclipse will take place between 8:50pm today (Monday) and 1:51am tomorrow (Tuesday) of Pakistan time.

The partial eclipse will begin at 10:23pm and end at 12:18pm.

Residents of Asian countries including Pakistan apart of Europe, Antarctica, Africa, and Australia will be able to see the eclipse.

The first lunar eclipse of the current year was visible on February 11 night. It was penumbral lunar eclipse. A penumbral eclipse occurs when only the outer shadow of Earth falls on the moon’s surface. The lunar eclipse was seen in Europe, Africa, western Asia and South America.

The first solar eclipse of the year 2017 took place on 26th February whereas the second is scheduled to take place on 21st August 2017.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the 3 celestial bodies do not form a perfectly straight line in space. When that happens, a small part of the Moon’s surface is covered by the darkest, central part of the Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. Depending on the size of the eclipse, a dark red or rust colour, or simply a charcoal grey may appear on the shadowed portion of the lunar surface.