Next Friday, the Saudi sky awaits the second celestial phenomena.
By : Marwa Mahmoud
Eng. Majid Abu Zahira, head of the Jeddah Astronomical Society, said that on Friday, 13 Shawwal 1441 – (5 June 2020) the sky of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula will witness the second eclipse of the four moons this year, which is a semi-shadow eclipse, which will last 3 hours which 18 minutes.
He clarified that the sub-shadow eclipse happens as the moon passes through the darkened outer part of the Earth’s shadow called (semi-shadow) and the moon’s brightness decreases slightly during this form of eclipse.
In its totality, however, the entire disk will remain illuminated by sunlight for the eclipse duration, and this eclipse will occur two days later. The apparent size of the moon will be 3.3 per cent greater than the usual, and it will be from the passage of the moon to the bottom of the planet, which is the closest point of its orbit from Earth.
Abu Zahira stated that the eclipse phases will occur simultaneously in all regions as the eclipse will begin to join the moon into the Earth’s shadow area at 8:45 p.m. (5:45 p.m. GMT) and no alteration will be detected and the moon will appear as normal.
At that time the moon would reach shape of full moon at 10:12 p.m. (07:12 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time) and there are half-orbits around the Earth during the month, which is the last full moon in the spring and before the summer solstice.
the moon eclipse will reach its full height at 10:25 p.m. (7:25 p.m. GMT) and at that time (57 per cent) of its disk will be positioned in the Earth’s semi-shadow, which is a smaller percentage compared to (90 per cent) in the semi-shadow eclipse (mid-Jumada The first) on the tenth of January last year.
