Chandra Grahan 2018: Should you eat during an eclipse

Bengaluru, July 27: An astrophysicist busted myths surrounding eclipses, especially the longest celestial event of the century - the lunar eclipse occurring on Friday night. Astrophysicist Ramesh Chender Kapoor, who was with Indian Institute of Astrophysics, opined that the lunar eclipse is not all harmful.

Kapoor said, "I want to assure that eclipses are not at all harmful to people. Your food doesn't get spoiled. And pregnant women do not get affected at all." He encouraged people to view the eclipse that will last approximately 103 minutes.

This eclipse will be the second total lunar eclipse in 2018, after the one in January. The eclipse will occur simultaneously with the perihelic opposition of Mars, a coincidence that happens once every 25,000 years.

When to watch?

In India, it will be seen in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, among other major cities from 11:44 pm IST, and the first phase is expected to set in from 11.54 pm IST and the entire eclipse from 1.00 am IST on July 28. The second phase of the eclipse will start from 2:43 am IST, wherein a partial lunar eclipse will be taking place.

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