Muscat: People in Oman who want to watch this week’s blood moon, which takes place on May 26, can view one of several livestreams of the event since the phenomenon will not be visible over large parts of Asia.
The second lunar event of the year, the upcoming blood moon will feature a lunar eclipse, which takes place when the moon passes completely through the Earth’s dark shadow or umbra.
“During this type of eclipse, the Moon will gradually get darker, taking on a rusty or blood-red colour,” said NASA. “The colour is so striking that lunar eclipses are sometimes called blood moons.”
Both
timeanddate.com and the Virtual Telescope Project will host free livestreams that can be watched by people around the world.
At 8:45am UTC (12:45pm GST), the moon will enter penumbra, i.e. that part of the earth’s shadow where the sun is partially blocked, before the partial eclipse beginning an hour later. The total eclipse will begin at 3:15pm GST, and will last for about 11 minutes.
At 3:26pm, the total lunar eclipse will end, and it will once again become partial in nature, with the partial eclipse ending at 4:52pm. Penumbra will end at 5:49pm.
This particular full moon is also called a Flower Moon, because it takes place during a time in the world that many countries commonly associated with spring, when flowers bloom in abundance.
“The total eclipse phase will be visible near moonset in the western United States and Canada, all of Mexico, most of Central America and Ecuador, western Peru, and southern Chile and Argentina,” added NASA. “The eclipse can be seen in its entirety in eastern Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii.”
Those who are able to watch the blood moon in person are free to do so with the naked eye: unlike solar eclipses, which require protective equipment to observe, lunar eclipses are completely harmless.
