The total Solar Eclipse, caused by a super moon, will be most visible for people in South and East Asia and northern and eastern Australia, so unfortunately this eclipse will be hard to see from North America.
The eclipse will begin at 23:20 UTC/Coordinated Universal Time on March 8th.
(Which for us in North America is 11:20 pm in the evening)
The maximum point of the eclipse will occur at 02:00 UTC on March 9.
Totality will last for 4 mins 09 secs.
The next Solar Eclipse won't be until August 21st 2017!
The total duration of the eclipse is 4 hours, 15 minutes.
The next Penumbral Lunar Eclipse won't until Sep 16, 2016.
What exactly is a Penumbral Eclipse? The Moon shines because its surface reflects the Sun rays. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and blocks sunlight from directly reaching the Moon.
Two celestial events must happen at the same time for a penumbral lunar eclipse to occur:
- the Moon should be a full Moon, and
- the Sun, Earth and Moon must be imperfectly aligned in a straight line.
About one-thirds of all lunar eclipses are penumbral. They are however easy to miss because when they happen, the Moon looks no different than a full Moon, but now you know the difference!
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