It will be the penultimate major astronomical event of the year; a small partial eclipse of the Moon, but it will coincide with the full moon of September and with one of the four supermoons that occur during the last months of each year when the Earth’s satellite completes its full phase. The partial eclipse of the Moon, the last of this year, will occur during the early hours of this Wednesday, and it is an event that can be seen with the naked eye because it does not entail any danger -unlike those of the Sun- and does not require any special instrumentation.
How and when to see the eclipse?
The phenomenon will be visible from Europe, America and Africa, and is the penultimate of the important astronomical events marked on the 2024 calendar, which will be completed with an annular eclipse of the Sun on October 2, although this will only be visible in some places in South America. From Spain (both from the peninsula and from the Canary Islands) the eclipse will also be visible from 4:12 (peninsular time), it will reach its maximum at 4:44 and the Moon will recover all its splendor at 5:18, according to data from the National Geographic Institute (IGN). Although the astronomical event could be seen from Spain, the predictions of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) indicate that the clouds will prevent this contemplation in many places, since the skies will be very overcast in many places, especially in the east of the peninsula, in the Balearic Islands and in the Canary Islands. The lunar eclipse, which occurs when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, creating a cone of shadow that in this case will be very small, is not exceptional in this case, since they are repeated between four and seven times each year (of the Sun or the Moon), but it can be especially striking when it coincides with one of the four “supermoons” of 2024.The “supermoons” occur when the full phase of the satellite coincides with its closest approach to the Earth during the elliptical path it describes during its orbit, which causes the star to appear much larger and brighter to the eye.In total, from the beginning of the “penumbral” phase of the eclipse, the complete phenomenon will last for 4 hours and 6 minutes, although the “partial” phase – when the Moon shows the shadow cast by the Earth – will only last 1 hour and 3 minutes.And the eclipse will cause a slight darkening – barely perceptible to the naked eye – of the entire lunar disk during the “penumbral” phase and a small bite will appear during the “partial” phase, although this will barely affect 3.5 percent of the visible surface of the star, according to several websites specializing in astronomical observation.After Wednesday’s eclipse, the Moon will be eclipsed again on two occasions during the next year (on March 14 and September 7), and in both cases it will be a total eclipse visible in many places around the world, including Spain, from where it will also be possible to see the partial solar eclipse on March 29, but not the one on September 21 of next year.Wednesday’s eclipse coincides with the second of the year’s “supermoons,” popularly known in Spain as the “Harvest Moon” because it coincides with the start of the harvest in many places, and comes four days before the next equinox – when daylight and night are practically equal – on September 22, when autumn officially begins.
Parcial Eclipse of Supermoon
