This year, the world will witness a total of three lunar eclipses. Out of these, the first will occur on April 25, 2013 and will provide an opportunity for stargazers to witness the celestial event. N Sri Raghunandan Kumar of the Planetary Society of India said while talking to a news agency, that a tiny sliver of the moon will be covered by the umbral shadow of the earth.
The eclipse is predicted to last for 27 minutes and will be the 3rd shortest partial lunar eclipse of the 21st century. NASA said that the shortest partial lunar eclipse of the 21st century will be on February 13, 2082 and will last for just 25.5 minutes. It was also indicated by NASA that the 2nd shortest partial lunar eclipse will last for 26.7 minutes on September 28, 2034.
The prominent Umbra phase will begin at 1:22 am and will end at 1:53 am. The peak of the eclipse will be at 1:37 am. The partial lunar eclipse will be visible from the regions like Australia, Asia (other than the North Eastern part), Africa, Europe and Antarctica.
A total of five eclipses will occur this year out of which three will be lunar and two annular.
