A total lunar eclipse will occur next Monday, May 16, 2022. The maximum of the eclipse will take place at 06:11 official time in Spain (04:11 TU). The umbral phase of the eclipse (when the light of the Moon is completely blocked by the Earth) will start at 04:27 and end at 07:55 and the penumbra will go from 03:30 to 8 :51 a.m. The last phases of the eclipse, however, will be difficult to observe since civil twilight begins at 6:00 a.m. and sunlight begins to be prominent in the sky and at 06:28 a.m. the Moon will set over the horizon.
The phenomenon will be visible from Catalonia with the Moon at a considerable height, about 15º at the beginning of the umbral phase.
Lunar eclipses are celestial phenomena visible from a wide geographical area and there are different types: the most impressive are the total, in which the Moon is completely covered by the Earth's shadow and takes on a reddish hue; less spectacular are the partial ones that occur when the Moon enters only part of the Earth's shadow and are seen with one part of the lunar disk dark and the other illuminated; the most discreet are the penumbral ones, in which only a slight darkening of the disc can be seen.
The last total lunar eclipse took place on May 26, 2021, but it was not observable from Catalonia, there we couldn’t observe this phenomenon since January 21, 2019. The next one will be on the 8 November 2022 but it will not be visible from Catalonia, for that we will have to wait until March 14, 2025.
Visibility
The May 16 eclipse is visible from parts of North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
The phenomenon will be visible from Catalonia. The maximum of the eclipse will occur at 06:11 official time (04:11 TU) at a height above the horizon of 3º and the event will end at 06:28 (04:28 TU) due to the Moon setting over the horizon.
In Barcelona the Moon will rise at 20:32 official time (18:32 TU). You can check the specific circumstances of the eclipse for each locality in the Eclipse App.
This figure (F. Espenak, NASA's GSFC) shows the passage of the Moon through the Earth's shadow and the visible areas of the eclipse.
Eclipse Phases
|
Phase |
Time (Official Time) |
|
Start of the penumbral phase (P1) |
03:32 |
|
Start of the partial phase (U1) |
04:27 |
|
Maximum |
06:11 |
|
End of the partial phase (U4) |
07:55 |