Keen sky watchers will be able to witness the first lunar eclipse of the year, in Qatar sky on Saturday beginning after 1:30am. The eclipse will be "penumbral" which is not as spectacular or noticeable as a total lunar eclipse, will not be visible to the naked eye.
The rather subtle phenomenon occurs when the moon moves through the outer part of Earth’s shadow, that blocks some of the sun's rays from reaching the moon, and covers a part of the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, also known as the penumbra.
About one-third of all lunar eclipses are penumbral. They are, however, easy to miss because when they happen, the eclipsed Moon tends to look very similar to a full Moon, though darker. In fact, it is impossible to observe the start and end of a penumbral lunar eclipse, even with telescopes.
“The spectacle will not be visible with naked eyes,” Dr Beshir Marzouk, Astronomer with Qatar Calendar House told The Peninsula.
“People here will have to use telescope or even a digital camera to see it. Only penumbral eclipses where a large portion of the Moon is in the Earth's penumbral shadow may be detectable to observers on Earth. Lunar eclipse on Saturday will have magnitude of -0.035, which are very hard to view by observers on Earth,” he added.
The penumbral eclipse will be start at 1:34 AM local time, reaching its peak at 3:45 AM and the penumbral eclipse will be end before sunrise over Doha sky at 5:53 AM. The eclipse duration will be four hours and nineteen minutes.
The lunar eclipse will be visible throughout most of eastern South America, eastern Canada, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Africa, and most of Asia. The lunar and solar eclipses validates astronomical calculations; where the lunar eclipse happen in middle of Hijiri months, while solar eclipses happen before first of Hijiri months, according to officials of Qatar Calendar House.
