Total Lunar Eclipse of 15th June 2011 in Pakistan

The eclipse occurs on 15th/16th June when the Moon is at the ascending node in southern Ophiuchus, about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Perhaps you know that the Lagoon Nebula is an obvious naked-eye target from dark skies. The Moon plunges deep into Earth's umbral shadow during this rather long event, with totality itself lasting 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was that of July 2000. Fred Espenak, “Mr. Eclipse” of NASA, reflecting about a total lunar eclipse he witnessed in the same part of the sky nearly three decades ago writes, “I was amazed at how brilliantly the summer Milky Way glowed since it was all but invisible during the partial phases.”

The above 10 minute exposure was taken on film. If the skies are clear on June 15th, you can imagine what modern DSLRs would be able to capture in much shorter exposures. The Moon's contact times with Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows in Pakistan Standard Time (PKT) are listed below:

15TH June 2011 (Wednesday)

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 22:24:34 PKT

Partial Eclipse Begins: 23:22:56 PKT

16TH June 2011 (Thursday)

Total Eclipse Begins: 00:22:30 PKT

Greatest Eclipse: 01:12:37 PKT

Total Eclipse Ends: 02:02:42 PKT

Partial Eclipse Ends: 03:02:15 PKT

Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 04:00:45 PKT

The Technicalities

Here is the visibility map of the lunar eclipse: link. At greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will drop to 1.6998 as the Moon's centre passes within 5.3 arc-minutes of the shadow axis. The southern limb of the Moon will be 54.2 arc-minutes from the edge of the umbra while the northern limb will be 22.3 arc-minutes from the umbra's edge. Thus, the northern regions of the Moon will probably appear brighter than the southern regions that lie deeper in the shadow. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time. It is difficult to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times as totality progresses. Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon (i.e. north vs. south). Check out this link about the Danjon scale of lunar eclipse brightness.