A partial lunar eclipse will take place on August 7/8, 2017.

It is the second of two lunar eclipses in 2017. This eclipse will be visible from all parts of the country. This will precede by 14 days the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, which will be the first total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States since the February 26, 1979, eclipse.

Such an occurrence happens when the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun but the three are not lined up perfectly.

When this type of eclipse occurs, a small section of the moon’s surface will cover the darkest region of the Earth’s core shadow. This region is called the umbra, while the surface of the moon that is covered by the outer shadow of the Earth is called the penumbra.

The partial lunar eclipse will be seen from 10.52pm on August 7 to 12.48am on August 8 while penumbral eclipse will be visible from 9.20pm to 2.21am for about 5.1 hours. During the daytime, only 20% of the moon will be under the shadow, the magnitude will be 0.246. This eclipse will also be visible from Europe, Australia, Africa, South-East America, Antarctica, Asia.

The partial lunar eclipses take place when two astronomical events occur simultaneously. The first condition is that the moon is in its full moon phase, while the second is that the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun. As such, a partial lunar eclipse is not a common occurrence. Given that moon orbits around the Earth, the moon may not always be parallel to both the Earth and the Sun when it is a full moon.

The magnitude of the eclipse is 0.246. The penumbral magnitude of the eclipse is 1.289. The total duration of the eclipse is 5 hours, 1 minute. The duration of the partial eclipse is 1 hour, 55 minutes. During the partial lunar eclipse, the moon inside the umbral shadow will be a subtle red, but hard to see in contrast to the much brighter moon remaining in the outer penumbral shadow.

The graph below shows the right-to-left hourly motion of the moon through the earth’s shadow.

Total eclipse takes place when the earth comes between the sun and the moon in a straight line, but when the moon passes partly through the dense shadow, it is called partial or umbrae moon eclipse.

When the moon passes through the faint shadow of the earth, penumbral eclipse takes place,” Suresh Chopane, president of sky watch group from Chandrapur said.

The next lunar eclipses will take place on January 31, 2018, and July 27, 2018.