Longest lunar eclipse tonight

Sri Lankans are in for a celestial treat tonight. The darkest and one of the longest lunar eclipse in the century will be visible in Sri Lankan skies

The eclipse is fully visible since it being a full moon poya day, while Sri Lankans get the rare chance of viewing the full eclipse too. Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Colombo and Consultant -Astronomy and Space Applications at the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies Dr. Chandana Jayaratne said this time the Moon will pass directly through the center of the Earth’s shadow cone – an event that hasn’t happened in 11 years and won’t happen again until 2018.

The eclipse begins at 10.55 p.m. on 15th night with the moon entering into the penumbra of the earth’s shadow and will end up at 4.31 a.m. Dr. Jayaratne said the visible part of the eclipse for the observers begins around 11.53 p.m. on 15th night with the moon entering into the Umbra – the dark part of the earth’s shadow and it will appear till the moon leaves the Umbra at 3.32 a.m. Dr. Jayaratne said Sri Lanka will experience the next lunar eclipse for the year in December while the island will next experience the longest lunar eclipse in 2018. The first lunar eclipse (a partial lunar eclipse) which occurred this year, was on January 04,