Tonight (27/28 July 2018) will see the second lunar eclipse of 2018 taking place in our night sky. This eclipse will be visible in Cyprus (and large parts of Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America).
During a total lunar eclipse the moon takes on reddish glow which has led to this type of eclipse often being called a Blood Moon. This is caused by the Moon traveling through the Earth’s umbra. This blocks all direct sunlight from illuminating the Moon’s surface. However, some filtered sunlight still reaches the lunar surface indirectly, via the Earth’s atmosphere, bathing the Moon in a reddish glow.
With good weather conditions in Paphos, the entire eclipse will be visible as the moon will be above the hozizon throughout.
The duration of the full eclipse will be 1 hour and 43 minutes. The timings for the eclipse are as follows:
Penumbral Eclipse begins at 8:14pm, Partial Eclipse begins at 9.24pm, Full Eclipse begins at 10:30pm, Maximum Eclipse begins at 11:21pm.
Full Eclipse end at 00:13am, Partial Eclipse ends at 1:19am, Penumbral Eclipse ends at 2:28am.
This is the second eclipse this season. The first was a partial solar eclipse on 13th July 2018 and the third will be a partial solar eclipse on 11th August 2018.
Also to look out for, dependent on weather conditions, is the planet Mars, which is very close to the eclipsed Moon tonight – making it is easy to see with the naked eye.
