Early Awakens Observe Longest Partial Lunar Eclipse in 580 Years – 11/19/2021 – Science

Brazilians from different parts of the country woke up earlier this Friday (19) to watch Longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years. The astronomical phenomenon began shortly after 4 am and forced many people to go out and photograph the moon with their mobile phones.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned So that the moon passes through the shadow of the earth. In a full lunar eclipse, the entire moon is covered by the Earth’s shadow, called an umbra.

During this phenomenon, the moon acquires a reddish color.

The US space agency said the eclipse can be admired at dawn across North America and most of South America, and will also be visible later in parts of northeast Asia, Polynesia and eastern Australia, but not in Europe or Africa.

Friday’s eclipse will last 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds and is the longest since February 18, 1440, which lasted 23 seconds.

According to NASA, it will be necessary to wait until February 8, 2669 to see a partial eclipse for a longer duration (3 hours 30 minutes) than Friday, but a total eclipse is expected in less than a year, on November 8, 2022, for a period of 3 hours and 40 minutes.

However, the dawn was due to a lunar eclipse, but there were also rains in some regions of Brazil. This combination caused frustration among those who programmed the alarm and could not notice the astronomical phenomenon.

“How do you see the longest partial lunar eclipse in the last 500 years with a completely cloudy city sky, Google search,” Belo Horizonte (MG) Brino Otero joked.