Longest blood moon of century today

Chennai: Time to grab your binoculars and head to the terrace as the longest yet lunar eclipse of the century is here. Popularly known as a 'blood moon', the celestial treat will last for one hour and 43 minutes in the early hours of Saturday morning but the partial eclipse will be visible for another five hours.

It is called a 'blood moon' as the moon gets a rusty orange or deep red colour when the sunlight is scattered through the Earth's atmosphere. The eclipse can be witnessed in India and can be seen in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, among other major cities from 11:44 pm IST. The longest possible period of totality for a lunar eclipse is an hour and 47 minutes.  The earlier longest eclipse of the century was on July 16, 2000, and lasted 1 hour, 46 minutes and 24 seconds.

This eclipse happens to coincide with the moon's apogee, a point in the moon's orbit where it is farthest from the Earth. It is the opposite of the well-known "supermoon" called a "micro moon" which is a relatively tiny-looking moon because of the distance. Mars will be very close to the micro red moon and will be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye as a small, red coloured speck.