The longest total lunar eclipse in the next 11 years will be seen at night from 15 June to 16 June 2011 on all continents, except North America (see a map).

In total, the Moon will remain in the shadow of the Earth about 100 minutes. It will also be the first total lunar eclipse this year, during the eclipse, the Moon will pass almost through the center of the earth's shadow. Lunar eclipse when the moon passes directly through the center of the earth's shadow, is very rare and is called the central total lunar eclipse, the last such eclipse was almost 11 years ago, and the next will only on July 27, 2018.

The emergence of solar and lunar eclipses, due to the peculiarities of the Moon in orbit around the Earth. When the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth, the solar eclipse occurs, and when Earth is between the Moon and the Sun, it is a lunar eclipse. In the case of the solar eclipse of the Moon casts a shadow on the Earth's surface, and in case the lunar eclipse, the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon and the observer on Earth it seems that the shadow of "creeps" to the moon.

On average, solar or lunar eclipses occured every six months, but if the orbit of the Moon lies completely in the Earth's orbital plane, then every two weeks to eclipse occured: at every new moon solar eclipse would occur, and on every full Moon would occur lunar eclipse. But in reality, the plane of the Moon's orbit is inclined to the Earth's orbital plane at an angle of about 5 degrees, because this eclipse occur only when the moon is a new moon or full moon is near the intersection points of the lunar orbit with the plane of Earth's orbit, but this does not happen more often, than semiannually.

The main difference between lunar eclipse and the sun eclipse- that lunar eclipses visible from all over the nighttime hemisphere and solar eclipses are always visible in a very narrow strip on the surface of the Earth. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon as move into the Earth's shadow phase of the lunar eclipse is becoming more and more and more stars become visible to the naked eye. At full lunar eclipse which will occur on June 15, 2011, you can see the faintest stars that are only able to distinguish the human eye.

Upon occurrence of a full lunar eclipse, the Moon takes on a red or brownish tinge. Color of a lunar eclipse depends on the condition of the upper layers of the stratosphere, since it is only transmitted through her light illuminates the moon during a total eclipse. With full lunar eclipses were observed at different times different shades of the eclipse: lunar eclipse on July 6, 1982 was a red, a lunar eclipse on January 20, 2000 had a brownish tint. These colors of lunar eclipses are caused by the fact, that the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere scatter more red rays, so can not observe the lunar eclipse, with shades of green or blue.

According to Richard Keen of the University of Colorado, the lunar eclipse on 15 June 2011 will have a tinge of red color, as in the upper atmosphere have elevated sulfur content, as a result of the ongoing volcanic eruption in Chile. But the most appreciated color of the lunar eclipse can only be those, who will observe the total phase of the lunar eclipse. Observers partial phases of the lunar eclipse should pay attention to the boundary between the illuminated and unilluminated part of the Moon, which will have a vague form of the presence of the Earth atmosphere, the red color of this border can be seen on the high content of sulfur in the atmosphere.

Learn the offensive phase of the lunar eclipse of 15 June 2011 can be based on the scheme, drawn up by scientists of NASA. The diagram shows the position of the Moon relative to the earth's shadow at the moment of contact with the edge of the Earth's penumbra (P1, P4) and the edge of the earth's shadow (U1, U2, U3 and U4), as well as the position of the Moon in the middle of the eclipse. While all the points of contact with the edge of the Earth's penumbra shadow indicated at UT - UT.

Based on this scheme, we can approximately determine the visibility of the lunar eclipse in your point of observation. Based on map, eclipse on 15 June 2011 will not observer on the territory of any country in North America and residents of European countries will not be able to see the full phase of the lunar eclipse. The total phase of the lunar eclipse of 15 June 2011 will also be observed in most parts of Kazakhstan, the republics of Central Asia, the Middle East, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa as well as in India, Thailand and western China.