Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse is expected to be visible in Nigeria on Monday September 28, 2015 for five hours and eleven minutes. According to a statement signed by the Deputy Director in charge of Media and Communications at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Dr. Felix Ale, the natural occurrence will start by 1:11am and end by 6:22 am.

The lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the earth comes in-between the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth casts its shadow on the Moon, so that the Moon appears reddish. The agency said the event will be visible in Abuja and in locations with the absence of cloud cover.


Other regions of the world that will experience the event include Europe, South/East Asia, Africa, North America, South America, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Arabic and the Antarctica.


A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind the Earth into its umbra (shadow). This can occur only when the sun, Earth and moon are aligned (in "syzygy") exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can occur only the night of a full moon. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes.

Unlike a solar eclipse, which can be viewed only from a certain relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of the Earth. A lunar eclipse lasts for a few hours, whereas a total solar eclipse lasts for only a few minutes at any given place, due to the smaller size of the Moon's shadow. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full moon.

Did you sight the eclipse at your location? I stayed up till the very early hours of the morning to view it. Now it's 3:45am (WAT) and I saw the partial eclipse, yay!  

Images: slooh.com, Google