A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Thursday, August 6, 2009, with an umbral magnitude of −0.6642. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. 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. Occurring about 2.1 days after apogee (on August 3, 2009, at 22:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

This eclipse was the third of four lunar eclipses in 2009, with the others occurring on February 9 (penumbral), July 7 (penumbral), and December 31 (partial).

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over South America, Africa, and Europe, seen rising over much of North America and setting over central and south Asia.

Hourly motion shown right to leftThe Moon's hourly motion across the Earth's shadow in the constellation of Capricornus.
Visibility map

Gallery

Eclipse details

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

August 6, 2009 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.40379
Umbral Magnitude−0.66417
Gamma1.35724
Sun Right Ascension09h04m42.0s
Sun Declination+16°42'38.9"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'46.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.7"
Moon Right Ascension21h02m46.3s
Moon Declination-15°34'32.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'45.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°54'11.4"
ΔT66.0 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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Eclipse season of July–August 2009
July 7 Ascending node (full moon)July 22 Descending node (new moon)August 6 Ascending node (full moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 110Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 136Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 148

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2009

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 148

Inex

Triad

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 6, 1922
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 6, 2096

Lunar eclipses of 2006–2009

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 lunar eclipses on July 7, 2009 (penumbral) and December 31, 2009 (partial) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2006 to 2009
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1132006 Mar 14Penumbral1.02111182006 Sep 7Partial−0.9262
1232007 Mar 03Total0.31751282007 Aug 28Total−0.2146
1332008 Feb 21Total−0.39921382008 Aug 16Partial0.5646
1432009 Feb 09Penumbral−1.06401482009 Aug 06Penumbral1.3572

Saros 148

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 148, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 15, 1973. It contains partial eclipses from October 10, 2117 through May 5, 2460; total eclipses from May 17, 2478 through September 14, 2676; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 25, 2694 through May 25, 3091. The series ends at member 70 as a penumbral eclipse on August 9, 3217.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 37 at 104 minutes, 29 seconds on July 10, 2568. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2568 Jul 10, lasting 104 minutes, 29 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
1973 Jul 152117 Oct 102478 May 252514 Jun 08
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
2622 Aug 132676 Sep 143091 May 253217 Aug 09

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 1–13 occur between 1973 and 2200:
123
1973 Jul 151991 Jul 262009 Aug 06
456
2027 Aug 172045 Aug 272063 Sep 07
789
2081 Sep 182099 Sep 292117 Oct 10
101112
2135 Oct 222153 Nov 012171 Nov 12
13
2189 Nov 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 2096
1802 Mar 19 (Saros 129)1813 Feb 15 (Saros 130)1824 Jan 16 (Saros 131)1834 Dec 16 (Saros 132)1845 Nov 14 (Saros 133)
1856 Oct 13 (Saros 134)1867 Sep 14 (Saros 135)1878 Aug 13 (Saros 136)1889 Jul 12 (Saros 137)1900 Jun 13 (Saros 138)
1911 May 13 (Saros 139)1922 Apr 11 (Saros 140)1933 Mar 12 (Saros 141)1944 Feb 09 (Saros 142)1955 Jan 08 (Saros 143)
1965 Dec 08 (Saros 144)1976 Nov 06 (Saros 145)1987 Oct 07 (Saros 146)1998 Sep 06 (Saros 147)2009 Aug 06 (Saros 148)
2020 Jul 05 (Saros 149)2031 Jun 05 (Saros 150)
2096 Nov 29 (Saros 156)

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 2154
1806 Dec 25 (Saros 141)1835 Dec 05 (Saros 142)1864 Nov 13 (Saros 143)
1893 Oct 25 (Saros 144)1922 Oct 06 (Saros 145)1951 Sep 15 (Saros 146)
1980 Aug 26 (Saros 147)2009 Aug 06 (Saros 148)2038 Jul 16 (Saros 149)
2067 Jun 27 (Saros 150)2096 Jun 06 (Saros 151)2125 May 17 (Saros 152)
2154 Apr 28 (Saros 153)

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 partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 155.

July 31, 2000August 11, 2018

See also

Notes

External links

  • John Walker (7 August 2009). . The eclipse was captured with two digital photographs and combined into one gif file.
  • Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC