A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from Sri Lanka today, starting at 11.15 p.m. It will reach the maximum eclipse at 12:54 am on June 6 when the Moon is closest to the centre of the shadow. The penumbral eclipse will end at 2:34 am on June 6, 2020.
A penumbral lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon are imperfectly aligned. In this case, the Earth blocks some of the Sun’s light from directly reaching the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, also known as the penumbra. Since the penumbra is much fainter than the dark core of the Earth’s shadow a penumbral eclipse is hard to distinguish from the normal Full Moon.
When the Moon moves through the faint, outer part of Earth’s shadow, we witness a penumbral lunar eclipse from the Earth. If you are in Asia, Australia, Europe, or Africa, you might see the Strawberry Moon turn a shade darker during the maximum phase of this penumbral lunar eclipse.
Apart from this lunar eclipse in June, the year 2020 has two more lunar eclipses lined up. One lunar eclipse will occur in July and the last lunar eclipse of the year will occur in November. These two eclipses are also penumbral ones.
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