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Russia to watch full lunar eclipse on Saturday

The sun will go down in Moscow at about 4:57 p.m. and the twilight will last until 5:43 p.m.

MOSCOW, December 9 (Itar-Tass) —— A full lunar eclipse will be seen from Russia for almost one hour on Saturday. That would be the second full lunar eclipse of the year. The first one happened on June 15 and had a record duration of over 100 minutes.

“A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes through the Earth shadow within about four hours. Nothing serious happens and there are no consequences whatsoever. It simply gets dark on the Moon, like it happens on the Earth when the sun goes down,” senior research at the Sternberg State Astronomy Institute Vladimir Surdin told Itar-Tass.

“The phenomenon looks rather scary. Blue and yellow rays are out and only red rays reach the Moon, which looks reddish in the beginning and the end of the eclipse and cannot be seen other than through a telescope in the midst of the process,” he said.

“The lunar eclipse in Moscow will begin at 3:30 p.m. local time but it will hardly be noticed, because the Moon will be moving into the Earth shadow slowly. The full eclipse will begin at 4:45 p.m. Moscow time and will reach its peak at 6:00 p.m. to 6:05 p.m. The eclipse will enter into its final phase at 7:00 p.m., the Moon will be in a semi-shadow by 8:18-8:30 p.m., and the eclipse will be over at 9:30 p.m.,” the researcher said.

The sun will go down in Moscow at about 4:57 p.m. and the twilight will last until 5:43 p.m.

Claims that a lunar eclipse may have an effect on people are nothing but rumors, Surdin said. It may be significant only for those who live on the coast because high tides are bigger by about 1.5 times in the periods of new moon and full moon. A lunar eclipse is also of interest to astronomers, who watch the Moon cooling and study its makeup.

The full lunar eclipse of December 10 will be also seen in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia and Alaska. The next event will take place no earlier than in 2014.