Double Eclipses

Witnessing both solar and lunar eclipses in the same shift in Basra

During the December-January shift, I was lucky enough to witness two natural phenomena of the Solar System - Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse. Although they were not full eclipses, the fact that they both happened in a short span of time, and while I was in Basra, is quite amazing. 

On 26th December 2019, a partial solar eclipse was visible early in the morning, just after sunrise:

Then about two weeks later, a penumbral lunar eclipse occurred on 10th January 2020. Such a lunar eclipse was a little difficult to notice as it looks almost like a normal full moon. However if you look carefully at the lower right section of the moon, you will see that the light is slightly dimmer. This is because the moon moves through the faint, outer part of Earth’s shadow (source: timeanddate.com)

If you are curious, timeanddate.com has a cool graphical simulation of both past events, which you can view here:


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