“It is actually a cyclical, repetitive event. Due to their movement in one harmony, it becomes a repetitive and a very predictable natural phenomenon. Nowadays, we can astronomically predict when it would happen and where we could watch this amazing phenomenon,” said Yatny Yulianty, a researcher at Bosscha Observatory on Monday (24/5/2021).

Yatny also mentioned that this year, there would be two moon eclipses. A total moon eclipse would occur on May 26th 2021, while a partial moon eclipse would occur on November 19th 2021. Another kind in the group, called penumbral eclipse, wouldn't occur this year.

Agus Triono, an astronomer from Bosscha explained that total eclipse occurs when a part of earth’s shadow covers the moon, while penumbral eclipse, on the other hand, is hard to recognize with naked eyes, since it is similar to an ordinary full moon.

“The lunar eclipse occurrence depends on when the position of the moon is relative to the earth and the sun or the position of the earth relative to the moon and sun configuration. When the shadow (core) of the earth (umbra) completely covers the moon from our perspective, we can call it a full moon eclipse,” Agus later explained.

What’s special about the upcoming eclipse is that the eclipse would occur when the moon is at its closest position to earth due to the ellipse orbital form of the moon. The upcoming eclipse on May 26th would make the moon appear bigger, and before the eclipse, it would appear brighter. People can observe a significant difference right before the eclipse. The moon would be covered in a reddish light too, thus the upcoming eclipse is called “Super Blood Moon”.

The moon would be in the eclipse phase at 16.44 WIB, when the moon should have appeared in the East side of Indonesia. The eclipse phase would start at 18.11 WIB and occur in 14 minutes. At 18.11-18.29 WIB, the moon would appear red. The eclipse would finish at 20.49.

Reporter: Restu Lestari Wulan Utami (Biologi, 2017)
Translator: Tamara Maharani Alamsyah (TPB FSRD 2020)