Total lunar eclipse on July 27 midnight

There will be a total lunar eclipse around the midnight of July 27 which is expected to be this century's longest, an expert said today.

This time, the moon would pass right through the centre of the earth's shadow which makes it the first central lunar eclipse after the one in June 2011, B G Sidharth, Director of BM Birla Science Centre here said.

"It is occurring at a time when the moon is at its farthest distance from the earth and so it will be the longest total lunar eclipse in this century.

The totality itself will last for an hour and 43 minutes," he said in a release.

The eclipse is visible from countries in Africa, Central Asia, South America, Europe and Australia.

The eclipse can be seen from all over the country when there are no clouds, the release said.

The eclipse itself will begin a little beforemidnightat about11.15 p.m.IST.(Penumbral Eclipse begins at22:44:47at Hyderabad).

This is what is called the first contact when the partial lunar eclipse begins," it said.

After this, the moon will get deeper and deeper into the earths shadow. The greatest part of the lunar eclipse happens at 51 minutes 44 seconds past midnight (IST), it said.

Then slowly the eclipse will start decreasing and finally at about3.58 amof July 28, the eclipse would be in the partial phase for one hour and nine minutes, it said.