King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) has announced that it expects a 50-minute total lunar eclipse Saturday evening (Dec. 10). The moon will begin to appear over Riyadh at 5:01 P.M. It will be in a state of total lunar eclipse when the sun sets at 5:06 P.M. The National Astronomy Center at KACST said the total eclipse would end at 5:57 P.M. It will then turn into a partial eclipse that will continue until nearly 7:20 P.M. This will be the first in a number of lunar and solar eclipses expected to take place during the new Hijra year. The year 2011 has witnessed four solar eclipses and one lunar eclipse, Saturday's being the second. A lunar eclipse happens when the earth comes between the moon and the sun, blocking the rays of the sun, and the moon passes through the earth's shadow. Saturday's eclipse will happen in the middle of the month on the lunar calendar when the moon is at its fullest. The KACST National Astronomy Center also predicts a partial solar eclipse on May 20, 2012, and a total solar eclipse towards the end of the Hijra year on November 13, 2012, but neither will be visible in the Kingdom. __
