When does lunar eclipse can be seen

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What Is an Eclipse?
Lunar Eclipses
There are three different types of lunar eclipses:
Solar Eclipses
What Happens During a Solar Eclipse?

In 2022, there will be two eclipses of the Moon, two eclipses of the Sun, and no transits of Mercury. Two of the eclipses will be visible from parts of North America.

April 30, 2022: Partial Eclipse of the Sun. This eclipse is not visible from North America. (The partial solar eclipse is visible from the southeastern Pacific Ocean, the Antarctic Peninsula, and southern South America.)

May 15, 2022: Total Eclipse of the Moon. This eclipse is visible from North America, except in northwestern regions. The Moon will enter the penumbra at 9:31 P.M. EDT on May 15 (6:31 P.M. PDT) and leave it at 2:52 A.M. EDT on May 16 (11:52 P.M. PDT on May 15).

October 25, 2022: Partial Eclipse of the Sun. This eclipse is not visible from North America. (The partial solar eclipse is visible from Greenland, Iceland, Europe, northeastern Africa, the Middle East, western Asia, India, and western China.)

November 8, 2022: Total Eclipse of the Moon. This eclipse is visible from North America, although the Moon will be setting during the eclipse for observers in eastern regions. The Moon will enter the penumbra at 3:01 A.M. EST on November 8 (12:01 A.M. PST) and leave it at 8:58 A.M. EST (5:58 A.M. PST).

What Is an Eclipse?

The two types of eclipses that we witness here on Earth are solar eclipses and lunar eclipses:

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, partially or entirely blocking out its light. Solar eclipses are visible only in certain areas and require eye protection to be viewed safely.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the full Moon enters the shadow of Earth, which cuts off all or part of the sunlight reflected off the Moon. Lunar eclipses are technically visible from the entire night side of Earth, but during a penumbral eclipse, the dimming of the Moon’s illumination is slight. Learn more about lunar terminology.

Not all eclipses are the same, however. There are a few different ways for lunar and solar eclipses to happen:

A total eclipse (of either the Moon or the Sun) occurs when the Moon or Sun is entirely blocked out.
- During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon is completely obscured by the dark center of Earth’s shadow (called the umbra), giving the Moon a dark, reddish hue.
- During a total solar eclipse, the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon, resulting in a brief period of awe-inspiring darkness.
A partial eclipse (of either the Moon or the Sun) occurs when only part of the Moon or Sun is obscured.
An annular eclipse is a type of solar eclipse. Annular eclipses are similar to total solar eclipses (where the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon), but in an annular eclipse, the Moon’s apparent size is smaller than the Sun’s, meaning that the Sun is not completely obscured. This results in a very bright ring of light called an annulus.
A penumbral eclipse is a type of lunar eclipse. Penumbral eclipses occur when the Moon enters only the faint outer edge of Earth’s shadow (called the penumbra), which causes the Moon to appear slightly darker than usual. The effect is so slight that a penumbral eclipse can be hard to recognize unless you know to look for it!

There is also a phenomenon called a transit, which is similar to an eclipse, though not quite as visually stunning:

A transit occurs when one celestial body passes between a larger celestial body and a third celestial body. For example, when Mercury passes between the Sun and the Earth, this is called a transit of Mercury. Because Earth is the third planet from the Sun, we are able to observe transits of both Mercury and Venus.

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Introduction

Anywhere from four to seven times a year, our Earth, Moon and Sun line up just right to create the cosmic-scale shadow show known as an eclipse. The Moon's orbit around Earth is tilted relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun. This tilt is the reason why we have occasional eclipses instead of eclipses every month.

There are two types of eclipses: lunar and solar. During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow obscures the Moon. During a solar eclipse, the Moon blocks the Sun from view.

Lunar Eclipses

Lunar eclipses occur at the full moon phase. When Earth is positioned precisely between the Moon and Sun, Earth’s shadow falls upon the surface of the Moon, dimming it and sometimes turning the lunar surface a striking red over the course of a few hours. Each lunar eclipse is visible from half of Earth.

There are three different types of lunar eclipses:

Total lunar eclipse

The Moon moves into the inner part of Earth’s shadow, or the umbra. Some of the sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere reaches the Moon’s surface, lighting it dimly. Colors with shorter wavelengths ― the blues and violets ― scatter more easily than colors with longer wavelengths, like red and orange. Because these longer wavelengths make it through Earth’s atmosphere, and the shorter wavelengths have scattered away, the Moon appears orangish or reddish during a lunar eclipse. The more dust or clouds in Earth’s atmosphere during the eclipse, the redder the Moon appears.
Partial lunar eclipse

An imperfect alignment of Sun, Earth and Moon results in the Moon passing through only part of Earth's umbra. The shadow grows and then recedes without ever entirely covering the Moon.
Penumbral eclipse

If you don’t know this one is happening, you might miss it. The Moon travels through Earth’s penumbra, or the faint outer part of its shadow. The Moon dims so slightly that it can be difficult to notice.

Date	Eclipse Type	Geographic Region of Visibility
November 8, 2022	Total	Americas, Pacific, Asia, Australia
May 5, 2023	Penumbral	Africa, Asia, Australia
October 28, 2023	Partial	Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia
March 25, 2024	Penumbral	Americas
September 18, 2024	Partial	Americas, Europe, Africa
March 14, 2025	Total	Pacific, Americas, Western Europe, Western Africa

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Solar Eclipses

Solar eclipses happen only at the new moon phase, when the Moon is between Earth and the Sun. During a solar eclipse, the Moon casts a shadow on Earth, and blocks or partially blocks our view of the Sun. Though solar eclipses happen as often as lunar eclipses, they are visible from such a small area of Earth each time that it’s much rarer to encounter one.

During a solar eclipse, the Moon's shadow on Earth’s surface is only about 300 miles (480 km) wide. The shadow consists of two parts, the umbra, where the Sun is completely blocked, and the penumbra, where the Sun is partially obscured. People in the umbra will see a total eclipse, while people in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse. Though the shadow is narrow and the total eclipse lasts for only minutes, our planet rotates fast enough to bring the shadow a third of the way around Earth's surface before the Moon moves out of alignment with the Sun.

That we often get such impressive solar eclipses on Earth is a lucky chance of nature. The Sun is vastly larger than the Moon ― it’s diameter is about 400 times the Moon’s. But the Moon is roughly 400 times closer to Earth. This makes it possible for the Moon to almost perfectly block out the Sun when everything aligns.

What Happens During a Solar Eclipse?

This state of affairs won’t last forever. The Moon started its existence much closer to Earth, and has been slowly drifting outward at the rate of about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) per year. Once it makes it past 14,600 miles (23,500 km), it’ll appear too small from Earth to cover the Sun. But don’t panic if you haven’t seen an eclipse yet ― you’ve got another 600-million-plus years before that border is breached. In the meantime, you can get a preview during an annular eclipse, when the Sun, Moon and Earth align but the Moon’s orbit places it too far away from Earth to entirely block the disk of the Sun. During an annular eclipse, the sky takes on a twilight cast, but some of the Sun still shows.

› Learn more about solar eclipses