Partial lunar eclipse today

It's time for star gazers to get their telescopes out to see the partial lunar eclipse close to midnight on April 25. Vanita Srivastava reports.

It's time for star gazers to get their telescopes out to see the partial lunar eclipse close to midnight on April 25.

Only a tiny sliver of the moon will be covered by the earth's umbral shadow at maximum eclipse but the entire northern half of the moon will be darkened from being inside the penumbral shadow.

The April 25-26, 2013, partial lunar eclipse will last for 27 minutes, making it the third shortest lunar eclipse of this century.

The eclipse in various phases is likely to begin at 11.32 pm on April 25 and end at 03.43 am on April 26.

"This will be the only visible lunar eclipse of 2013. There are two more lunar eclipses later this year, but both are penumbral. Sky gazers can see darkening of moon's disk between 1.22 am to 1.53 am," N Sri Raghunandan Kumar, secretary Planetary Society of India said.