Longest and darkest total lunar eclipse of century tomorrow

ECLIPSE
New Delhi, Jun 14 (PTI) The longest and darkest total
lunar eclipse of the century will occur Wednesday, giving sky
enthusiasts all over the country an opportunity to witness the
event.
An unusually long lunar eclipse with the Moon immersed
deeply inside the umbral (darker) shadow of the Earth will
occur tomorrow, Nehru Planetarium Director N Rathnasree said.
"The total phase of this lunar eclipse will last 100
minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was in July
2000," she said.
The next such eclipse will only take place in 2141.
The total lunar eclipse will begin at 00:52:30 IST and
end at 02:32:42 IST. While the partial eclipse will begin at
23:52:56 IST and end at 03:32:15 IST.
The eclipse will be visible completely in Africa and
Central Asia. It will be visible rising over South America,
Western Africa and Europe, and seen setting over Eastern Asia,
and Australia, C B Devgun from Science Popularisation
Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) said.
The magnitude of the one of the relatively rare total
lunar eclipse will be 1.70 magnitude, N Sri Raghunandan Kumar
of Planetary Society of India said.
The next lunar eclipse to be viewed in India will be
in December this year.
Also, a star named 51 Ophiuchi will be occulted during
the eclipse.
Sky enthusiasts can witness the whole sequence of the
occultation in the zodiacal constellation of Ophiuchus.
At 11:29 PM tomorrow, the Moon will occult (hide)
behind the star 51 Ophiuchi. The star will reappear after 90
minutes at 01:01 AM of June 16, Kumar said. PTI SG
KAP