Through Its Sophisticated Telescopes
"Science & Technology" Enables Its Visitors to View the First Lunar Eclipse with no Similar since 40 years

 The sophisticated telescopes provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) on the evening of Wednesday 13 Rajab 1432h recorded the first lunar eclipse with no similar monitored since forty years due to its long duration that exceeded (100) minutes and made it one of the rare cases. It resulted in darkness and disappearance of the moon disc in full at the peak of the total eclipse of the moon at the earth shadow.
Many interested people who flocked to the KACST’s headquarters could follow the process of the total lunar eclipse. KACST put a number of the highly advanced telescopes at the disposal the visitors to monitor phases of the eclipse while KACST’s specialists provided general knowledge about the eclipse process and how it occurs.  They also distributed booklets about eclipses and responded to enquiries and questions of the audience.
Mr. Saleh Mohammed Sa’ab, the Supervisor of KACST’s National Center for Astronomy, indicated that the eclipse started at 20:24:34 pm as the moon entered the semi-shade area while the beginning of the partial eclipse of the moon was at 21:22:56, then the total eclipse phase began at 22:22:30, while the end of the partial eclipse was at 01:02:15 am and lasted until the end of the total eclipse at 02:00:45 am.
Mr. Sa’ab  explained that  the total lunar eclipse occurred on the moon’s  crossing in front of the center of the Earth's shadow  that made the moon very dark on the contrary of the other total lunar eclipses that are either  bright red or somewhat dark red.
Mr. sa’ab elaborated that the regularity of these great celestial bodies in their orbits, as destined by the Creator of this great universe, enables astronomers to follow-up, locate and predict what will emerge from such phenomena, clearing that but for the regularity of this movement, it would not have been able to know about these celestial bodies and expect the consequent results.
Mr. Sa’ab went on stating “Forecasting such phenomena is neither of the modern knowledge nor the current successes of modern sciences as many people think, Muslim astronomers could foretell both solar and lunar eclipses since hundreds of years ago. They could also foretell types of the eclipse, whether partial or full and also consequents of such eclipses.
It is worth mentioning that an eclipse similar to this total lunar eclipse monitored in the kingdom  of Saudi Arabia and the Arab region, and viewed  in America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia was not monitored since forty years but it may be repeated, by God’s will,  in 1439 AH.