November 19 will mark the day that will witness the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years. This also will be the last lunar eclipse of the year. The last time something like this occurred was on February 18, 1440. And the next one is expected to occur on February 8, 2669.

When does a partial lunar eclipse occur? When the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, although not in a perfect line. When this happens, the little part of the moon gets covered by the Earth’s shadow, resulting in a reddish moon.

The partial lunar eclipse will be visible from North America, South America, Eastern Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Region.

In India, the partial eclipse will be visible in a small part of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The people in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand will be able to see the end of the event.

A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon, Sun, and Earth are imperfectly aligned and the Moon moves through the outer part of Earth’s shadow called the penumbra.

Dr Debiprosad Duari, Director, Research & Academic at MP Birla Planetarium, Kolkata explains: “The partial eclipse will start around 12:48 IST and will end at 16:17 IST. The duration of the partial eclipse hence will be for 3hrs 28 minutes and 24 seconds, making it the longest eclipse of the 21st century and the longest in almost last 600 years.”

“The penumbral eclipse preceding and succeeding the umbral partial eclipse will begin at around 11:32 IST and end at 17:33 IST. At the maximum partial eclipse, at around 14:34 IST, 97% of the Moon will be covered by the Earth’s shadow and the Moon may appear to be blood red in colour, which happens when the red part of the sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere get least deflected and falls on the Moon giving it a reddish tinge,” Indian Express quoted him as saying.

The total lunar eclipse will happen on May 16, 2022. However, it will not be visible from India. India will experience a total lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022.