VIDEO: One of the longest total lunar eclipses of the decade visible across UAE

The UAE skies witnessed a total lunar eclipse on Sunday evening. The eclipse was visible to the naked eye from 8:15pm until 12:15am, UAE local time and lasted for more than four hours, according to Eng. Mohammed Shawkat Odeh, Director of the International Astronomy Centre.

Odeh explained that the International Astronomy Centre broadcast the eclipse live through one of the Al Khatim Astronomical Observatory’s telescopes, with the broadcast lasting from 7:30pm to 11:50 pm UAE local time.

The eclipse was fully visible from most of Asia and Australia, while it was partially visible in Europe and Africa, he said. While the moon rose in the eastern Arab world before the eclipse began, it rose in the middle of the eclipse and was in its early stages, he added, noting that it rose in its final stages in the western Arab world.

He explained that the moon began entering the penumbra at 7:28pm and the partial eclipse began at 8:27pm while the total eclipse began at 9:31pm and reached its peak at 10:12pm, the total eclipse ended at 10:53pm, the partial eclipse at 11:57pm and the eclipse ended completely at 12:55am.

The moon usually does not disappear during a total eclipse because sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere and is refracted toward it, giving it a bright orange or red hue, he added, noting that the moon’s hue reflects the purity of the atmosphere.

He pointed out that in some rare cases, the moon may disappear completely, as happened in the eclipse of December 9, 1992, as a result of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.