People across Taiwan and its outlying islands should be able to see a partial lunar eclipse early tomorrow morning if the skies are clear, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
The full celestial event is to take place from 2am to 6:28am when the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, partially blocking the light of the full moon, the CWA said.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the three celestial bodies are on the same plane of orbit, and the sun casts the Earth’s shadow onto the moon.
A small part of the moon’s surface is covered by the darkest, central part of the Earth’s shadow, called the umbra, while the rest of the moon is covered by the outer part of the Earth’s shadow called the penumbra, the CWA said.
The eclipse will occur in five stages, of which the first four should be visible from Taiwan.
The penumbral eclipse is expected to begin at 2am from the eastern side of the moon, meaning the Earth’s penumbra starts covering the moon’s surface. That might be hard to see with the naked eye because it could be blurry and of limited scale, the CWA said.
People might be able to more clearly see the next stage when the Earth’s umbra starts moving over the moon at 3:35am, darkening the southeastern corner of the moon, it said.
The Earth’s umbra would cover the largest part of the moon at 4:14am, the CWA said, predicting it should cover about 13 percent of the moon’s surface.
The partial eclipse is to end at 4:54am, meaning the Earth’s umbra no longer covers the moon, and by 6:28am, the Earth should no longer cast a shadow on the moon, resulting in the end of the penumbral eclipse, it said.
In the final stage, the penumbral lunar eclipse would not be visible because the moon would disappear over the western horizon from 6:03am on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) to 6:20am in Kinmen County, it said.
The next event that could be visible from across Taiwan would be a total lunar eclipse, which is to occur on the night spanning Sept. 7 to 8, 2025, the CWA said.
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