Super Blood Moon in Easter sky on May 26 evening
Kolkata, May 19: A rare Super Blood Moon will be seen in the eastern sky on May 26 evening, just after a total lunar eclipse.
Kolkata had seen its last total lunar eclipse, 10 years ago, on December 10, 2011, Director of M P Birla Planetarium and renowned astrophysicist Debiprasad Duari said Wednesday.
"On the night of May 26, the sun, earth and moon alignment will be such that from earth it will be viewed as a full moon and also eclipsed for some time. Moon on its journey around the earth will be passing through earth's shadow for a few moments and will be totally eclipsed," Duari said.
The total lunar eclipse will be visible mostly from Eastern Asia, Pacific Ocean, most parts of North and South America and Australia.
The partial eclipse of the moon will start at around 3:15 pm and end at 6:22 pm.
For most of India, the moon will be below the eastern horizon during the total eclipse and so people of the country cannot observe a blood moon, but in some parts, mostly from eastern India, people will see only the very last part of a partial lunar eclipse, that is also very close to the eastern horizon when the moon is just rising.
On that evening, the "moon rise in Kolkata will be at 6:15 pm and the interested people will just possibly get a few minutes glimpse of the partial eclipse which will end at around 6:22 pm," he said.
For the other metropolis like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai the eclipse will not be seen as during the eclipse phase moon will be below the horizon at these places.
"Most of the country will have to be satisfied with a penumbral eclipse, which is not very much discernible with naked eye, when moon passes through a slightly shadowed region of the Earth and is not very spectacular," Duari said.
"But, forgetting the critical COVID-19 situation, people can then see a bright and bigger full moon on that night. At perigee a full moon looks 30 per cent bigger and 14 per cent brighter than an average full moon. That is the reason the full moon will shine brighter and also look bigger on that night," he said.
Moon will be at its perigee on that day exactly at around 7:23 pm, at a distance of 3,57,309 km from Earth.
Explaining the reason behind calling it a blood moon, Duari said as the totally eclipsed moon takes a dark blackish red colour (it) is called a blood moon.
"This happens because of the comparatively less deviation of the red part of the moon light through the earth's atmosphere and falling on the moon's surface," he said.
The next total lunar eclipse will occur on May 16, 2022, but, it will not be visible from the Indian subcontinent.
But on November 8, 2022 a lunar eclipse will be seen from India.
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Railways announces 84 special trains following IndiGo flight cancellations
New Delhi (PTI): The Railways announced 84 special trains across all zones for Saturday to help people facing travel disruptions due to the mass flight cancellations by IndiGo.
In a coordinated move by the Railway Ministry, the trains, which are to make 104 trips, were arranged in the shortest possible time after analysis of train traffic situations in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Patna, and Howrah, among others.
"The number of special trains and their trips might increase further depending on the traffic scenario. All zones have been asked to make use of all available resources, including rolling stock as well as manpower, to safely operate these trains for the convenience of lakhs of passengers stranded at different parts of the country due to flight cancellations," said Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information & Publicity, Railway Board.
Officials said efforts are being made to make people aware about the trains, and some divisions have even disseminated information at nearby airports to help passengers.
South Eastern Railway has issued a press release and informed the Airport Authority to display information regarding the newly introduced special train services.
ALSO READ: SWR announces special trains for passengers stranded by large-scale IndiGo cancellations
"Western Railway will run seven special trains on a special fare between Mumbai Central-New Delhi, Mumbai Central-Bhiwani, Mumbai Central-Shakur Basti, Bandra Terminus-Durgapura, Valsad-Bilaspur, Sabarmati-Delhi and Sabarmati-Delhi Sarai Rohilla stations," a press note said.
Similarly, South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights.
Central Railway and Northern Railway have planned 14 and 10 special trains respectively, and officials said these numbers are being further reviewed to meet any rising requirements.
Other zones have also issued notifications regarding special trains along with their schedules.
For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggages have been misplaced.
