April 2014 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, with an umbral magnitude of 1.2918. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.9 days after apogee (on April 8, 2014, at 10:50 UTC) and 7.6 days before perigee (on April 22, 2014, at 20:20 UTC).

This lunar eclipse is the first of a tetrad, with four total lunar eclipses in series, the others being on October 8, 2014; April 4, 2015; and September 28, 2015.

Background

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within Earth's umbra (shadow). As the eclipse begins, the Earth's shadow first darkens the Moon slightly. Then, the shadow begins to "cover" part of the Moon, turning it a dark red-brown color (typically - the color can vary based on atmospheric conditions). The Moon appears to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering (the same effect that causes sunsets to appear reddish) and the refraction of that light by the Earth's atmosphere into its umbra.

The following simulation shows the approximate appearance of the Moon passing through the Earth's shadow. The Moon's brightness is exaggerated within the umbral shadow. The northern portion of the Moon was closest to the center of the shadow, making it darkest, and most red in appearance.

Description

On April 15, 2014, the Moon passed through the southern part of the Earth's umbral shadow. It was visible over most of the western hemisphere, including eastern Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean, and the Americas. In the western Pacific, the first half of the eclipse occurred before moonrise. In Europe and Africa, the eclipse began just before moonset. Mars, which had just passed its opposition, appeared at magnitude -1.5 about 9.5° northwest of the Moon. Spica was 2° to the west, while Arcturus was 32° north. Saturn was 26° east and Antares 44° southeast.

The Moon entered Earth's penumbral shadow at 4:53:40 UTC and the umbral shadow at 5:58:19. Totality lasted for 1 hour 17.8 minutes, from 7:06:46 to 8:24:34. The moment of greatest eclipse occurred at 7:45:39. At that point, the Moon's zenith was approximately 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) southwest of the Galápagos Islands. The Moon left the umbral shadow at 9:33:02 and the penumbral shadow at 10:37:33.

The peak umbral magnitude was 1.29177, at which moment the northern part of the moon was 1.7 arc-minutes south of the center of Earth's shadow, while the southern part was 40.0 arc-minutes from center. The gamma of the eclipse was −0.3017.

The eclipse was a member of Lunar Saros 122. It was the 56th such eclipse.

Timing

* The penumbral phase of the eclipse changes the appearance of the Moon only slightly and is generally not noticeable.

Viewing events

Many museums and observatories planned special events for the eclipse. The United States National Park Service sponsored events at Great Basin National Park and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy held events at two locations on the islands. The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California streamed the eclipse live on the Internet.

NASA hosted two live question-and-answer sessions online. The first happened roughly 12 hours before the eclipse via Reddit's Ask Me Anything. The second was a web chat hosted on NASA's site just before the eclipse began. NASA also streamed the eclipse live on their website. NASA TV provided 3 hours of live coverage beginning at 2 a.m. EDT.

Gallery

• Simulation of Earth from the Moon, 7:47 UTC
• Albuquerque, NM, 6:02 UTC
• Winnipeg, MB, 6:28 UTC
• Rosemead, CA, 6:30 UTC
• Albuquerque, NM, 6:45 UTC
• New Braunfels, TX, 7:02 UTC
• West Valley City, UT, 7:29 UTC Moon with Spica
• Minneapolis, MN, 7:40 UTC wide angle with Mars
• Tustin, CA, 7:40 UTC
• Charleston, WV, 7:44 UTC The full eclipse by R. Jay GaBany
• Minneapolis, MN, 7:46 UTC
• San Jose, CA, 7:46 UTC
• Albuquerque, NM, 7:49 UTC
• Dolores, Uruguay between the church's tower.
• San Jose, CA, 8:23 UTC End of totality
• Montevideo, Uruguay, 8:43 UTC
• Queenscliff, Victoria, 9:14 UTC
• Montevideo, Uruguay

Relation to prophecy

Starting in 2008, Christian pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz began teaching "blood moon prophecies": Biltz said the Second Coming of Jesus would occur at the end of the tetrad that began with the April 2014 eclipse, while Hagee said only that the tetrad is a sign of something significant. The idea gained popular media attention in the United States, and prompted a response from the scientific radio show Earth & Sky. According to Christian Today, only a "small group of Christians" saw the eclipse as having religious significance, despite the attention.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2014

• A total lunar eclipse on April 15.
• A non-central annular solar eclipse on April 29.
• A total lunar eclipse on October 8.
• A partial solar eclipse on October 23.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 26, 2010
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 2007
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 26, 2021

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2005
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 20, 2023

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 16, 2003
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 14, 2025

Lunar Saros 122

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 4, 1996
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 25, 2032

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 4, 1985
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 25, 2043

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 15, 1927
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 14, 2101

Lunar eclipses of 2013–2016

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The penumbral lunar eclipse on May 25, 2013 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse on August 18, 2016 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 122

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 122, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 74 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 14, 1022. It contains partial eclipses from April 10, 1419 through June 24, 1545; total eclipses from July 5, 1563 through May 6, 2050; and a second set of partial eclipses from May 17, 2068 through July 21, 2176. The series ends at member 74 as a penumbral eclipse on October 29, 2338.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 39 at 100 minutes, 5 seconds on October 11, 1707. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two hybrid total/annualar solar eclipses of solar saros 129.

See also

• List of 21st-century lunar eclipses
• List of lunar eclipses

External links

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• Sky and Telescope
• at shadowandsubstance.com
• at virtualtelescope.eu
• APOD 4/16/2014