A total lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 26, 2051, with an umbral magnitude of 1.2034. 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. Occurring about 2.6 days after apogee (on April 23, 2051, at 12:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be smaller.

This lunar eclipse is the third of a tetrad, with four total lunar eclipses in series, the others being on May 6, 2050; October 30, 2050; and October 19, 2051.

Visibility

The eclipse will be completely visible over South America and west Africa, seen rising over North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean and setting over central and east Africa, Europe, and west, central, and south Asia.

Eclipse details

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

April 26, 2051 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude2.27848
Umbral Magnitude1.20339
Gamma0.33710
Sun Right Ascension02h14m06.4s
Sun Declination+13°27'39.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'53.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.7"
Moon Right Ascension14h14m24.0s
Moon Declination-13°09'52.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'47.3"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°54'16.4"
ΔT85.9 s

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.

Eclipse season of April 2051
April 11 Descending node (new moon)April 26 Ascending node (full moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 120Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 132

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2051

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 132

Inex

Triad

Lunar eclipses of 2049–2052

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 June 15, 2049 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2049 to 2052
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1122049 May 17Penumbral−1.13371172049 Nov 09Penumbral1.1964
1222050 May 06Total−0.41811272050 Oct 30Total0.4435
1322051 Apr 26Total0.33711372051 Oct 19Total−0.2542
1422052 Apr 14Penumbral1.06281472052 Oct 08Partial−0.9726

Saros 132

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 132, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 12, 1492. It contains partial eclipses from August 16, 1636 through March 24, 1997; total eclipses from April 4, 2015 through August 2, 2213; and a second set of partial eclipses from August 13, 2231 through November 30, 2411. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 26, 2754.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 36 at 106 minutes, 6 seconds on June 9, 2123. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2123 Jun 09, lasting 106 minutes, 6 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
1492 May 121636 Aug 162015 Apr 042069 May 06
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
2177 Jul 112213 Aug 022411 Nov 302754 Jun 26

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.

Series members 19–40 occur between 1801 and 2200:
192021
1816 Dec 041834 Dec 161852 Dec 26
222324
1871 Jan 061889 Jan 171907 Jan 29
252627
1925 Feb 081943 Feb 201961 Mar 02
282930
1979 Mar 131997 Mar 242015 Apr 04
313233
2033 Apr 142051 Apr 262069 May 06
343536
2087 May 172105 May 282123 Jun 09
373839
2141 Jun 192159 Jun 302177 Jul 11
40
2195 Jul 22

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
1811 Mar 10 (Saros 110)1822 Feb 06 (Saros 111)1833 Jan 06 (Saros 112)1843 Dec 07 (Saros 113)1854 Nov 04 (Saros 114)
1865 Oct 04 (Saros 115)1876 Sep 03 (Saros 116)1887 Aug 03 (Saros 117)1898 Jul 03 (Saros 118)1909 Jun 04 (Saros 119)
1920 May 03 (Saros 120)1931 Apr 02 (Saros 121)1942 Mar 03 (Saros 122)1953 Jan 29 (Saros 123)1963 Dec 30 (Saros 124)
1974 Nov 29 (Saros 125)1985 Oct 28 (Saros 126)1996 Sep 27 (Saros 127)2007 Aug 28 (Saros 128)2018 Jul 27 (Saros 129)
2029 Jun 26 (Saros 130)2040 May 26 (Saros 131)2051 Apr 26 (Saros 132)2062 Mar 25 (Saros 133)2073 Feb 22 (Saros 134)
2084 Jan 22 (Saros 135)2094 Dec 21 (Saros 136)2105 Nov 21 (Saros 137)2116 Oct 21 (Saros 138)2127 Sep 20 (Saros 139)
2138 Aug 20 (Saros 140)2149 Jul 20 (Saros 141)2160 Jun 18 (Saros 142)2171 May 19 (Saros 143)2182 Apr 18 (Saros 144)
2193 Mar 17 (Saros 145)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
1819 Oct 03 (Saros 124)1848 Sep 13 (Saros 125)1877 Aug 23 (Saros 126)
1906 Aug 04 (Saros 127)1935 Jul 16 (Saros 128)1964 Jun 25 (Saros 129)
1993 Jun 04 (Saros 130)2022 May 16 (Saros 131)2051 Apr 26 (Saros 132)
2080 Apr 04 (Saros 133)2109 Mar 17 (Saros 134)2138 Feb 24 (Saros 135)
2167 Feb 04 (Saros 136)2196 Jan 15 (Saros 137)

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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.

April 20, 2042April 30, 2060

See also

Notes

External links