July 27 – The Longest of the 21st Century Lunar Eclipse What do you need to know?

July 27 is the longest lunar eclipse of this century – the total eclipse phase in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia will be visible even for 1 hour and 43 minutes. From the moment the Earth's satellite edge darkens until the full moon returns, more than 5 hours will pbad through these areas, says livescience.com.

By way of comparison, in 2019 January 21 the lunar eclipse that will be seen by the peoples of North and South America and Western Europe and the United States. In Africa, the complete eclipse phase will take an hour and two minutes. And the solar eclipse is much shorter. For example, the eclipse observed in August 2017 did not last more than three minutes. So why are eclipses so different? Solar eclipses – when the moon closes the Sun's light to the Earth – it is still much shorter than the eclipses of the moon when the Earth travels between the Sun and the Moon. This is due to the difference in size of the shadows, says Kaisa Young, astronomer at Nicholas State University.

"If we look from the country, we see that the solar eclipse is a phenomenon when a small moon casts a small shadow on a large planet. An eclipse occurs when a large planet projects a large shadow on a small moon, "says the astronomer.When the moon closes, the sun and the solar eclipse occur, darkness – complete shade, in which the sunlight It is not completely visible – only a few tens of kilometers in diameter.There is a significant difference between the different moon or the different sun too, and there are significant differences between the different moon or the different sun Elliptic, says K. Young, all that is determined by the specific position in the eclipse of one For them, the Sun, the Earth and the Moon are present Earth orbits around the Sun and of the Moon around the Earth do not coincide and are not parallel: the angle between them is about 5 degrees.

The orbit of the Earth around the surface of the Sun The moon crosses twice in 27 days – it revolves around the Earth. This is one of the key factors behind the eclipse. About twelve times in 11 months, these plans in the Earth's orbit correspond to light, and our planet and satellite are upright.

Such an arrangement takes place when the moon falls in the middle (then an eclipse of the sun occurs), the other – when the earth appears in the middle (then the moon shines). That's why eclipses of sun and moon are always "pairs" in practice – they usually last about two weeks, and why each year eclipses occur two or four times. In addition, all eclipses are not identical, since the 11-month cycle is not perfectly regular and stable.

Sometimes the distribution of stars, planets and satellites is far from perfect, and the moon's shadow barely covers the Earth – for example, on July 13, when the moon is just about right. Solar eclipse was observed almost exclusively in Tasmania. And sometimes the range is such an ideal, and the moon spreads so precisely in the middle between the Sun and the Earth that its shadow glides towards the equator or when approaching. Such eclipses take a lot longer, says Young. The last factor determining the duration of the eclipse is the time of year.

In July, the Earth reaches its point of the Sun's orbit, at that time the Sun in the sky is the smallest area in comparison with other times of the year. This means that it is easier for the moon and the earth to protect the sun at once, and eclipses last longer. The sun is closest to the sun in January, when the lilac seems to be the largest, and the shadow of eclipse is the smallest. This is the reason why the longest eclipses occur when the northern hemisphere has been in the summer, and the shortest is when the winter is here. And on July 27 an eclipse, when the moon hits almost exactly between the Earth and the Sun, will reach almost the maximum duration theoretically possible.

Eclipse in Lithuania

Eclipse in Lithuania from beginning to end will take 5 hours and 9 minutes, we will be able to observe the total eclipse for 1 hour, 42 minutes and 56 seconds. The moon will arrive at 21:19, and already at 21:24 its edge will begin to darken. The beginning of the complete eclipse is 22:30, the end is 00:13. The partial eclipse will end at 1:19. Admittedly, crazy observers are not going to face the weather: current projections show that on July 27, Lithuania will rain with a storm, the sky will be cloudy with cracks. You can see the simulation of how eclipse will look like observers in Lithuania by clicking on this link.