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The vision can be witnessed from anywhere in India, and will begin at 1 am and end at 2.43 am.

Bengaluru: The longest observable lunar eclipse of the century will occur between 1 am and 2.43 am Saturday. The totality period, where the earth completely blocks sunlight from reaching the moon, will last 1 hour, 43 minutes.

Tonight, and few subsequent nights, Mars will also be the closest it’s been to earth since 2003. What’s more, all other classical planets will also be visible to the naked eye tonight — a stunning view of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

The eclipse

The eclipse will last long because of the alignment of the moon and earth tonight. The moon will pass right through the center of earth’s shadow from one end to another, almost fully.

India lies almost fully within the center shadow zone, so it can be observed from any part of the country.

Tonight’s eclipse will be just four minutes shy of the theoretical upper limit for a lunar totality — 1 hour, 47 minutes — making the event very rare. Normally, we observe a totality of just under or just over an hour.

The moon’s movement

When the earth passes between the sun and the moon covering the moon with its shadow, it turns into a shade of rust. This is because of how the atmospheric particles around earth scatter sunlight. If the earth had no atmosphere, the moon would instantly go dark like it does during the new moon phenomenon. But earth refracts light, scattering blue light more but red less. This red reaches the moon and is thus visible to us.

The moon will rise at 6.31 pm today. The penumbral phase, the outermost shadow, will start touching the moon at 10.44 pm. Partial eclipse will begin at 11.54 pm, and totality will begin almost exactly at 1 am. Peak total eclipse will be reached at 1.51 am. Total eclipse will end at 2.43 am, while partial and penumbral phases will end at 3.49 am and 4.58 am, respectively. The moon will set at 6.16 am tomorrow.

The moon will be visible in the south tonight, moving towards south-west during the eclipse.

Other planets

At about 10 pm, shining bright below the moon will be a reddish Mars, coming closer to us than it’s been before in the last 15 years. Moving towards the west will be Saturn, and to its west, bright Jupiter. Towards the east of the moon will be Venus.

At 1 am, when totality begins, Mars will still be visible just below the moon. To its west, almost in line with it, will be Saturn. Venus and Jupiter would have set by this point, but if you have a pair of good binoculars or telescope, you can spot Pluto in between Mars and Saturn, Neptune to the Moon’s east, and Uranus further east.

Mars’ closest approach to earth will actually be Tuesday, 2 pm. It will be about 58 million km away from earth, as against 54 million km in 2003. Mars is on an average 225 million km from earth, and 2003’s approach was its closest in 60,000 years.

Food during eclipse

India is no stranger to chatter every year during eclipses about rules to be followed. There is no harm in consuming food during eclipse even as some people with awareness abstain from eating out of habit or health choices.

Food doesn’t get damaged or spoiled during celestial events as there is no bearing of one over the other. Similarly, everyone is perfectly safe to walk outside or start a new project or wear metal on the body. An eclipse is no different from any other time of the day or night.

A common paper that is often quoted during eclipse, titled Effect of Solar Eclipse on Microbes, seems to be the only legitimate study on microbial changes in food during an eclipse.

However, the research has been widely discredited and can be easily picked apart. In the paper, there is no information on levels of sunlight and time of day, no change within error margins between normal sunlight and eclipsed light, no consideration of factors such as temperature and location, no images or readings of microbial change. It’s also filled with jargon like “complex nature of the composition of short waves, quantum waves emitted and absorbed in the environment” which does not make sense. In short, the paper, full of pseudoscience, doesn’t warrant any merit.

Astronomers and scientists all over the country aim to dispel these harmful myths of consumption of food during eclipse and post pictures of them eating. Previous instances can be found on the hashtag #EclipseEating.

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