Muscat - The skies of the Sultanate of Oman will witness a total lunar eclipse on Thursday, which is the first of 2025.
The partial eclipse begins at 9:09 am local time, while the total eclipse begins at 10:26 am and ends at 11:31 am.
Ahmed bin Mohammed al Khalidi, a member of the Omani Society for Astronomy and Space, said that the penumbral eclipse (according to the local time of the Sultanate of Oman) begins at 7:57 am, the partial eclipse begins at 9:09 am, while the total eclipse begins at 10:26 am and ends at 11:31 am.
The partial eclipse will end at 12:47 pm, while the penumbral eclipse ends at 2 pm local time.
Accordingly, the lunar eclipse will last six hours and three minutes for all its stages (penumbral, partial, and total).
He stressed that all residents of the Sultanate of Oman will not be able to witness the phases of the lunar eclipse, as the moon will descend in the Muscat Governorate at 5:45 am, which is before the start of the penumbral eclipse.
He added that the lunar eclipse can be seen in all areas where it is nighttime, but some will see it better than others.
The eclipse will be visible in large parts of Australia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Antarctica and North America.
He said that a lunar eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon that occurs when the Earth's shadow blocks the sunlight reflected from the moon.
This phenomenon occurs when the Earth, the sun, and the moon are aligned in a straight line. There are three types of eclipses: a total eclipse, which occurs when the entire moon enters the Earth's shadow.
In this case, the entire moon's disk is eclipsed, leading to a complete loss of visibility during the middle of the night, especially in desert areas. A partial eclipse occurs when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. In this case, part of the moon's disk is eclipsed.
A penumbral eclipse occurs when the moon enters only the penumbral shadow. In this case, the moon's light becomes dim without being eclipsed.
He pointed out that at the beginning of a total eclipse, the moon's color tends to be reddish due to the red rays that cannot be absorbed by the upper atmosphere of the Earth. A lunar eclipse usually occurs when the moon is full, unlike a solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon is in conjunction. Furthermore, lunar and solar eclipses do not occur monthly because the plane of the moon's orbit around the sun is tilted at an angle of approximately five degrees. Therefore, an eclipse only occurs when the sun (due to the Earth's orbit around the sun) passes through the point of intersection of the two planes, or what are called the nodes. Lunar eclipses can occur three times each year, while solar eclipses can occur five times a year.
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