Coming soon, 2 more eclipses

The partial lunar eclipse that occurred on Thursday-Friday (April 25-26) was the first of the three eclipses that will take place over the next one month.

Following the partial lunar eclipse, two more eclipses will occur on May 10 and May 25.

While the May 10 eclipse will be an annular solar eclipse, the one that will occur on May 25 will be penumbral lunar eclipse. A triple occurrence is considered a rare phenomenon, that too in a span of one month. Former professor of Indian Institute of Astrophysics RC Kapoor said the occurrence of two consecutive eclipses in a year are more common but three is rare.

“This year we have five eclipses in total.  Following the triple eclipses, a double eclipse will occur on October 18 and November 3,” Kapoor said.

While the October 18 eclipse will be penumbral lunar eclipse, the eclipse on November 3 would be a hybrid solar eclipse.”It is an annular plus total solar eclipse.  This a rarer class of eclipses,” said Kapoor. Though the occurrence of eclipses one after another is rare, astrophysicist say that there is nothing to worry and debunk theories about doomsday.

“Just because there are two or three eclipses in a row is nothing to be alarmed about. The orbits and positions of the Moon and the Earth with respect to the Sun can make it happen,” Kapoor added.

In 2009, a total of six eclipses occurred and it was declared as the International Year of Astronomy. Meanwhile, the partial lunar eclipse which occurred on Thursday-Friday night lasted for a little over four hours.  The lunar eclipse began at 11.33pm on Thursday and ended at 3.43am on Friday.