Lovers of full moons and lunar eclipses will enjoy tonight's view as the sky will be illuminated by the newest spectacles. The Flower Moon, this month's full moon, will rise in the region's skies at the same time as the most recent lunar eclipse.
When will the lunar eclipse be visible?
At Friday's evening, the UAE will witness a lunar semi-shadow eclipse. All stages of the eclipse will take 4 hours and 16 minutes from the beginning to the end of the eclipse and will start in the Emirates just after the sunset at 18:54 until 23:31 midnight. The lunar eclipse is a natural phenomenon that occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are on one straight line in the middle of the lunar month, which leads blocking the sunlight reflected from the Moon.
Ibrahim al-Jarwan, Chairman of the Emirates Association for Astronomy, a member of the Arab Union for Space and Astronomy science, noted that on Friday 5th May 2023, the Earth will witness a lunar eclipse of the semi-shadow type, where the Moon will enter the semi-shadow region of the Earth between 15:14 and 19:31, and 17:34 UTC (Emirates Time + 4 hours). It will be seen across the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and it will be seen also in the UAE and the Arabian Island as the moon rises after sunset. There will be a slight retreat in moonlight, and no part of the moon's disk will be obscured. We will see the next lunar eclipse on October 28, 2023 and it will be partially around 12%.
Lunar eclipses occur at a minimum rate of two times and a maximum rate of five times annually. This phenomenon has been classified into three types: total, partial or semi-shadow eclipses.
The phenomenon of "Lunar eclipse"
A lunar "semi-shadow" eclipse occurs when the moon is in the full moon phase in the semi-shadow region, and it differs from the two remaining eclipses types in that it is difficult to distinguish with the human's eye as in the case of a total or partial eclipse. It has to be spotted by a telescope, because the Moon is in the pale outer Earth shadow "semi-shadow," so that the Moon will not completely disappear and nothing will diminish in its size at the eclipse time, but only its lighting will diminish. The color of the moon during its eclipse varies depending on the amount of dust and clouds present in the atmosphere at the time.
It should also be noted that the 21st century (between 2001-2100 and 230) will witness 85 total lunar eclipses 58 partial eclipses, and 87 semi-shadow eclipse.
