Bhubaneswar: The longest lunar eclipse of the century will take place today which scientists have termed as the ‘blood moon’ that will be visible to the human naked eye in a reddish colour.
The lunar eclipse will not only be visible to the residents of Odisha but across the world. Ahead of the mega event, the planetarium in Bhubaneswar is organising some awareness programmes.
According to reports, the entire event will start from 10:44 pm and continue till 4:58 am early in the morning the next day. The full eclipse will last between 1:00 am and 2:43 am.
During the event, the moon will appear like a bright reddish orange colour and even turn into deep, dark red being lit up by Sun’s light through a process called refraction- when Sun’s light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere and then bent back towards the moon.
People can easily enjoy the spectacle provided the sky remains clear during the event.
Similarly, today planet Mars will also come closest to Earth for the first time in more than a fifteen years and all set to shine even more brightly than the largest planet Jupiter.
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Last time, the Red Planet came closer to the Earth was in 2003. It is to be noted that Mars and Earth whip around the sun at different speeds and in elliptical orbits. So at some point both the planets are at their closest point to the sun, known as perihelion. Today Mars will make a ‘perihelic opposition’ to Earth.
People will witness Mars rising every evening from eastern direction and reaching the top by midnight and spending time till the day breaks. It would look as the third brightest body after Moon and Venus during nights of July and August.