Kathmandu :

A partial lunar eclipse on September 7 will be vi-sible in Nepal, but sky gazers and amateur astronomers will have to depend on the sky remaining clear.

The eclipse will start at 11:50 pm and continue till 1:22 am. The phenomenon will reach its greatest magnitude around midnight.

Some calendars and almanacs might make reference to this Moon as the Harvest Full Moon, but they would be incorrect. Although many might associate the September Full Moon with the Harvest moon, this is not always the case.

The Harvest Moon is the one that comes the closest to the September Equinox and this year it happens to fall on October 6 — an occurrence that happens in one out of three years. The Harvest Moon can occur as early as September 8 (as in 1976) or as late as October 7

(as in 1987). So, this year’s version is coming about as late as it ever comes.

Unfortunately North Americans will be completely shut out of this event as it will be happening during the daytime when the moon is below the horizon. The eclipse will primarily be visible from western Australia, central Asia and the easter half of Africa. Europe will see the moon rise while in eclipse, while eastern Australia and New Zealand will see the moon set (for them it is the morning of September 8) while still in eclipse.

The dark umbral phase lasts just over 90 minutes and even at its maximum, the eclipse magnitude — that percentage of the moon’s diameter that will be within the Earth’s umbral shadow — is only 19 per cent. That dark shadow not be little more than a ‘bite’ out of the moon’s upper rim.

The next lunar eclipse will be a total eclipse on March 3, 2007 and will be visible from eastern half of north America, Europe, Africa, western Asia and Nepal.

(Acharya is a member of the American Astronomical Society)