BHUBANESWAR: Come December 10 and the State will witness the second lunar eclipse of the year. It will be a total eclipse which will be visible throughout Odisha. The moon will start entering the penumbra at 5 pm and at that time a faint shadow will be cast. But this will not be visible to the naked eye. When the moon enters the umbra at 6 pm, a dark shadow will be cast and the lunar eclipse will properly be visible. The moon will stay in the umbra till 7.30 pm. During this time, the moon will cast the dark shadow. “The shadow will completely cover the moon at 7.36 pm when the brightness of moon will be reduced to less than 40 per cent of its original brightness,” said deputy director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium Suvendu Patnaik. It will start leaving the umbra around 8.27 pm and completely exit it at around 9.47 pm. This will be the second total lunar eclipse this year. The first was on June 15. Lunar eclipse is a regular phenomenon and occurs at least once every year and may go up to four times a year. A total of seven eclipses can be seen in a year. “It is perfectly safe to see the lunar eclipse with naked eyes,” said Patnaik. He also allayed the apprehension of not venturing outside the home during the eclipse as baseless. They do not have any scientific basis, he said.
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