New Delhi: India and several other parts of the world will witness a lunar eclipse tomorrow (May 4, 2004) that will begin shortly after midnight.

"The partial phase of the eclipse will begin at about 00:18 hours (IST) on 5th May," Director of Nehru Planetarium Dr N Rathnasree said today.

"The total phase of the lunar eclipse will begin at about 01:32 hours and end at 02:38 hours," she said, adding the partial phase of the eclipse would end at 03:42 hours.

India is very well placed to observe the current lunar eclipse with all of the eclipse being visible from the country, she said.

Most parts of Africa, Middle East Asia, and Eastern Europe would also view all of the current eclipse while some phases could be seen from South America, Western Europe, Australia and Eastern parts of Asia, she said.

North America would miss this eclipse, she said.

However, India is not well placed to view the next lunar eclipse on 28th October this year as moon would set soon after the eclipse starts. It would be visible from most of the Americas, as well as Western portions of Europe and Africa.

Rathnasree said that an interesting thing about lunar eclipses is that the time of their occurrence is the same as seen by widely separated observers anywhere in the world.

This is the third such event within a span of less than a year, the two previous lunar eclipses having occurred during 2003 on May 15-16 and November 8.