Lunar eclipse on April 4 to be visible all over India

HYDERABAD: There will be a lunar eclipse on April 4 which would be visible from all over India, depending on weather conditions, an expert said here today.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth comes in between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon.

"It is total if the earth completely blocks the moon, as will happen on April 4," B M Birla Science Centre Director B G Sidharth said here.

"The first contact with the 'umbra' or the beginning of the eclipse is at 15.47 hours. The full lunar eclipse would begin at about 17.30 hours. The total eclipse would begin to end at 17.32 hours," he said in a statement.

However, this celestial spectacle would not be visible in Hyderabad because the moon would not yet have risen, Sidharth said.

The moon would rise in the East at 18.32 hours, just as the sun would set in the West.

When it rises, it would be seen as a partially eclipsed moon.

The partial phase would continue till 19.15 hours, when the eclipse would have ended, he said.

"In actual fact, the moon will not be completely blocked out during the eclipse, but it will appear wherever visible with a brownish reddish glow. This is the so called blood moon. This is because sunlight manages to reach the moon after bending through the earth's atmosphere," he said.