[ad_1]
The lunar eclipse of today should be the longest of the century and planetariums across the country have made elaborate arrangements for hobbyists, but rains and cloudy skies could dampen l & # 39; excitement.
The eclipse will also coincide with the closest Mars approach to the Earth. Nehru's Planarium in the nation's capital is organizing a "Carnival of the Moon".
N Ratnashree, director of the Nehru Planetarium, said that in addition to arranging five telescopes, the center also organized lectures on the eclipse. Amateur astronomers have also volunteered to guide people tomorrow about the eclipse, she said.
"But all of this is subject to rain and cloudy skies, there is already a lot of enthusiasm among people," Ratnashree added.
The Astronomical Society of India (ASI) warned against creating a hype around this event.
"For serious astronomers, this event offers an extraordinary opportunity to study Mars through their telescopes.However, a layperson who could expect to see dramatic details of the surface of Mars would probably be disappointed ", he said in a statement.
"Since we are in the middle of the monsoon here in India, the sky is likely to" The people of Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu are most likely to be witnesses of the event "said Aniket Sule, chairman of the ASI Public Awareness and Education Committee (POEC)." The total lunar eclipse will coincide with another relatively rare celestial phenomenon known as the Opposition of Mars
Ratnashree said that the Moon would enter the penumbral shadow of the Earth at about 10:53 pm (Eastern Time). Nothing remarkable will be noticeable to untrained eyes during Next 30 to 40 minutes After this, we can notice a gradual change in brightness on the lunar disc.
At 23:54, the Moon enters the shadow of the Earth 's shadow. Dark shadow will now be seen advancing on the lunar disc, which will be very visible to the naked eye. 9002] "At 1 am on July 28, the moon will be completely inside the Earth's shadow. At that moment, the color of the lunar disc will be red with its many shades – crimson, brick red, etc. The maximum eclipse time is 1h51. The total phase of the eclipse will end at 2:43 in the morning, it will be out of the shadows around 3:49 in the morning and completely out of the shadows at 5am. The eclipse will last 103.6 minutes, "said Ratnashree.
Mars will rise around sunset time and lie down around the sunrise time. occurs when Mars is closest to Earth in its orbit, both on the same side of the Sun.
The red planet will appear brighter and larger than usual.Although the opposition of March is Friday, it is closest to the earth on July 31. This curious fact is that the orbits of all the planets around the Sun are not a perfect circle, but an ellipse.
The approach of Mars will arrive four days after his opposition, which is also one of the reasons why the distance between Mars and the Earth is not the same at each opposition
The distance between Mars and the Earth is between 400 million kilometers (2.7 Astronomical Units, or UA) and 56- million km (0.38AU). s closest approaches occur during opposition
This time, Mars is closest to the Earth compared to any other period of the last 15 years. As a result, it will also appear to be the largest and brightest in the last 15 years. At this moment, Mars will be only 58 million kilometers from the Earth.
In technical terms, the angular diameter of Mars seen from Earth will be more than 24 "and it will be brighter than -2.75 magnitude.
For comparison, the brightest star in the sky night, Sirius, will be about 3 times weaker than Mars that day and the average angular size of the moon is 1800.
Even at the closest approach, Mars will look small.There should be a telescope equipped with a lens or a mirror of at least six inches of opening to discern even the main surface features of Mars.
Nevertheless, it would be an exciting opportunity to see the bright red planet right next to the red moon (eclipsed) that night.
Source link
