Blood Moon to light up sky on Sunday night during rare celestial event
Bengaluru: Skywatchers are in for a celestial treat this Sunday night and early Monday morning as a rare total lunar eclipse is set to grace the skies. During the eclipse, the Moon will take on a dramatic red hue, commonly known as a Blood Moon, offering viewers a spectacular sight across the world.
“Eclipses occur when the Earth aligns between the Sun and Moon. When the Earth’s dark shadow completely covers the moon, it is called a full lunar eclipse, which is occurring this time,” The New Indian Express quoted BR Guruprasad, Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, as saying.
The last time India witnessed a total lunar eclipse was in 2018. The next will occur on December 31, 2028.
Eclipses occur twice a year and are not uncommon. But this one stands out due to a full lunar eclipse, its colour and clear sighting, added the report.
However, the sighting is subject to weather conditions. “The red colour will depend on the dust in the Earth’s atmosphere,” TNIE quoted Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, scientist, Indian Institute of Astrophysics as saying.
The umbral phase, when Earth’s shadow first begins to creep across the Moon’s surface, starts at 9:57 PM IST on September 7. The highlight of the night — the totality phase, when the Moon is fully engulfed in Earth’s shadow — begins at 11:00 PM IST and lasts until 12:23 AM IST on September 8, as reported by India Today.
In Karnataka, the Platform for Astronomy Communicators (PACK) is preparing to raise awareness about the eclipse and dispel common myths associated with such astronomical events on September 7. Interested visitors can visit Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium or Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum.
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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR
New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.
The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.
Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.
She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.
The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.
In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.
Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.
