·

Total lunar eclipse of July 27, the longest of 21st century

total-lunar-eclipse-of-july-27-the-longest-of-21st-century

A total lunar eclipse will take place on July 27, 2018, and be visible throughout most of Europe, Africa, western and central Asia, the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

This will be the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting 1 hour and 43 minutes. In total, this eclipse will last nearly 4 hours.

During this type of eclipse, the Moon will gradually get darker and then take on a rusty or blood red color. 

The instant of greatest eclipse takes place at 20:21 UTC. This is 0.6 days after the Moon reaches apogee. During the eclipse, the Moon is in the constellation Capricornus. The synodic month in which the eclipse takes place has a Brown Lunation Number of 1182.

The eclipse belongs to Saros 129 and is number 38 of 71 eclipses in the series, eclipse specialist Fred Espenak aka Mr. Eclipse notes. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node. The Moon moves northward with respect to the node with each succeeding eclipse in the series and gamma increases.

This total eclipse is central meaning the Moon’s disk actually passes through the axis of Earth’s umbral shadow. It has an umbral eclipse magnitude of 1.6087, and Gamma has a value of 0.1168.

Because they are so deep, such eclipses typically have the longest total phases. In this case, the duration of totality lasts 103.0 minutes. That qualifies the eclipse as a member of a select class of exceptionally long total eclipses with durations exceeding 100 minutes.

This total lunar eclipse is preceded two weeks earlier by a partial solar eclipse of July 13, 2018, and it is followed two weeks later by a partial solar eclipse on August 11, 2018.

The next total lunar eclipse will take place on January 29, 2018. It will be visible throughout North and South America, Europe and Africa.

Featured image credit: Nick Bramhall

Share:

Commenting rules and guidelines

We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules:

  • Treat others with kindness and respect.
  • Stay on topic and contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.
  • Do not use abusive or hateful language.
  • Do not spam or promote unrelated products or services.
  • Do not post any personal information or content that is illegal, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these rules. By commenting on our website, you agree to abide by these guidelines. Thank you for helping to create a positive and welcoming environment for all.

3 Comments

  1. I hope this lunar eclipse will not trigger massive earthquake or volcanic eruption. The stress on earth’s magnetic field is already huge, as I stated many times in my previous posts.

  2. At Joel 2:30-32 the true God said that in the last days that are obviously now here, that he will show wonders in the heavens and on the land blood and fire and billows of smoke.” If you go online you will see reports and pictures of the signs on the earth they are blood rain, blood rivers, billows of smoke coming from Forrest fires and volcanos that are about to go off! And then the signs of heaven are trumpets being heard from the sky, along with other strange sounds happening and the solar and looner eclipses, also Stars (angels) falling and then changing into cars, air planes, helicopters and Birds that fly in threes. I have Sean those myself happen with my own eyes and in the visions in the night. These things are true although they hide it from you, but the children of God speak what is true as we all should because God sees everything! As you now see! Daniel 12:10

Leave a Reply to Jamal Shrair Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *