Country witnesses year's first lunar eclipse

Avid sky-gazers who had assembled at vantage positions across the country tonight watched this year's first and "deepest" penumbral lunar eclipse.

Avid sky-gazers who had assembled at vantage positions across the country tonight watched this year's first and "deepest" penumbral lunar eclipse.

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Parts of western and southern India witnessed the eclipse when the moon was rising while the rest of the country saw the total duration of the eclipse, NGO Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (S.P.A.C.E.) Director C B Devgun told PTI.

Eastern Canada and US, however, missed the eclipse, while people in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia and East Asia saw the entire eclipse, he said.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is in a direct line between the sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth falls on the Moon, Devgun said, adding a penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when moon passes through penumbra, the lighter part of the earth's shadow.

The lighter part of Earth's shadow is called the "penumbra" and the totally dark part is called the "umbra".