July 28, 2018 Total Lunar Eclipse

On the early morning of July 28, 2018 , a total lunar eclipse will be visible in the Philippines as well as Asia , Australia, Europe and Africa. This will be the second total lunar eclipse of 2018 and has a long duration of totality of about 1 hour 43 minutes as the Moon will pass thru the Earth's shadow almost centrally. This eclipse will be dark red during totality and will be popularly called the Blood Moon :) The Moon will enter penumbra at around 01:15am . The umbral (partial) phases run from 02:24am to 06:19 am, nearly 4 full hours, which results from two factors. First, the Moon passes directly through the heart of Earth's umbral shadow, just 6 arc minutes from its center. Second, the Moon is near the apogee of its orbit, meaning its most distant from Earth, resulting in a slightly diminished orbital velocity. Totality lasts almost 1 hour 43 minutes , from 03:30am to 05:13 am. Unfortunately, we won't be able to observe the entire eclipse in its entirely as the Moon sets at around 05:44am, almost 35 minutes before the Moon exits the dark shadow :( All times in this article are in Philippine Standard Time (PST) or +8 GMT or UT. ALP will be having a free public stargazing session on the evening of July 27th to observe the closest approach of Mars (Opposition) as well as observe the planets Jupiter and Saturn at SM By The Bay Amusement Park , The event will continue till the morning of July 28th to observe and document the total lunar eclipse till Moonset.