PANAJI
Goa will witness the closing stages of a total lunar eclipse on Tuesday evening, with the phenomenon already underway before the moon rises over the State.
According to the India Meteorological Department under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, a total lunar eclipse will occur on March 3, today. While the eclipse will be visible from most parts of India, observers in Goa will see only the final phase, as the moon will rise after the totality has ended.
In Panaji, moonrise is expected at 6.40 pm IST. By then, the total phase -- which begins at 4.34 pm and ends at 5.33 pm IST -- will have concluded. The umbral phase of the eclipse will end at 6.48 pm IST, giving Goans a brief window of about eight minutes to view the partially eclipsed moon before the event concludes.
The eclipse as a whole will begin at 3.20 pm IST and have a magnitude of 1.155. However, much of the dramatic “blood moon” phase will not be visible from Goa because it will occur before moonrise.
IMD said that most locations across India will observe the ending stages of the eclipse at moonrise, except parts of the North-East and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where the complete totality phase will also be visible.
The next lunar eclipse visible from India will occur on July 6, 2028, and it will be a partial eclipse. The last lunar eclipse visible from India was on September 7“8, 2025, which was also a total lunar eclipse.
As per the Association of Friends of Astronomy (Goa), the partially eclipsed "Worm Moon" will rise at 06.42pm and the partial phase will end at 6.47pm. “This strange coincidence makes the eclipse hardly visible for 5 minutes in Goa and observers will see only 3% to 5% of this eclipse. Added to daylight conditions during its occurrence, visibility in Goa is expected to be almost nil,” Satish Nayak, AFA President said.
The skywatchers in Goa will have the opportunity to view the Partial lunar eclipse after sunset.
A lunar eclipse occurs on a full moon day when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, casting its shadow on the lunar surface. A total lunar eclipse takes place when the entire Moon passes through the Earth’s umbral shadow.
