Eclipse 2018: Why is the total lunar eclipse of July the LONGEST Blood Moon of the 21st century? | Science | New

The total lunar eclipse will overwrite the full moon with a dark red glow on the night of Friday, July 27.

During the eclipse, the moon should arrive for one hour and 43 minutes – the only longest total eclipse for at least another 82 years.

Greenwich astronomer Dhara Patel told Express.co.uk that there are a number of explanations for why this is happening.

The space expert said: arrive. When we think of the shadow behind the Earth caused by sunlight, this shadow is what the moon is going through.

"We can imagine it as a circular region in the sky and sometimes when the moon does not pbad directly through the central part, it will move towards the edges of this circular shadow.

" This time , the moon pbades through the central part of this shadow rather than skimming it down or up

"that's one of the reasons why the eclipse will be longer and the other will be the lunar climax. "

The orbit of the moon around the planet is rather irregular and elliptical than entirely round

<img src =" https: //cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/151/590x/Eclipse-2018-Blood-moon-why-longest-total-lunar-eclipse-July-985998.jpg?r=1531134718329 "alt = "Eclipse 2018: July 27th Blood Moon [19659010] GETTY

Eclipse 2018: The Moon of Blood will be the longest lunar eclipse of the century

Because of this irregular orbit, the average distance of the Moon s 39 ; lengthens and shrinks according to its potion in the sky

July eclipse, t The moon will be at its farthest position from Earth – the so-called lunar apogee.

Ms. Patel said, "So, what we will see is a seemingly smaller moon and because it is farther away from Earth, it will travel a bit.

" These two things combined mean that we will see a longer eclipse because it takes longer for the moon to cross the Earth's shadow. "One last thing is that the Earth's orbit around the sun is not perfect either ., it is an elliptical orbit, and during the summer the Earth is at orbit farthest from the sun – that is the aphelion.

"Meanwhile, the shadow behind the Earth is actually a little longer and wider because of the angles between the sun and the Earth when the Earth is a little further away.

"This means that the moon will also take a little longer to cross the shadows."

In the United Kingdom, the initial phase of the lunar eclipse will have already begun at the time when the Moon is rising on the horizon

This means that the moon should already have red air or just start turning red at moonrise.

The partial eclipse of the Bloody Moon will begin under the horizon. 7.24pm BST, followed by the total eclipse phase between 20h30 and 21h BST.

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Eclipse 2018: The moon of blood turns red because of the sunlight scattered in the atmosphere

or greater eclipse , at 21:20

This time the moon crosses the central part of Earth's shadow

Dhara Patel, Royal Greenwich Observatory Astronomer

But why will the full moon become blood red during Ms. Patel explained: "The moon revolves around the Earth and when the moon pbades directly behind the Earth in the shadow of the planet, on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, we see a lunar eclipse [19659002"Normallywhenthemoonisinthispositionyoudonotexpectsunlighttoreachitthenyouexpectittobecompletelyblack"ThereasonitbecomesreddishisbecausetheEarthhasanatmosphereandwhentheluWhenthesunisreachableintheatmospherethegasesintheairscatterorbendthelightandthatistheredlightthatisscatteredbytherightamountthatitendsupbeingdirectedonthesurfaceofthemoon

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Eclipse 2018: The Moon of Blood will be visible from all over the country this month

"So during a lunar eclipse when the Moon is in a shadow of the Earth does that red light bends towards the moon and that is why we see that the reddish color and people call it a moon of blood. "[19659002] The Moon Moon eclipse will be visible from all over the UK. until about 10:13 pm, end time of the total eclipse

The moonrise times differ from a few minutes from one place to another, so check your local times before the eclipse.

Around midnight, the full moon should return to normal shining very high above the horizon.