A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, December 30, 2001, with an umbral magnitude of −0.1141. 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 3.7 days before perigee (on January 2, 2002, at 2:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over northeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and North America, seen rising over much of Asia and Australia and setting over South America.

The moon's hourly motion across the Earth's shadow in the constellation of Gemini.

Eclipse details

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

December 30, 2001 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.89477
Umbral Magnitude−0.11407
Gamma1.07318
Sun Right Ascension18h38m16.3s
Sun Declination-23°08'50.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'15.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension06h38m07.7s
Moon Declination+24°12'18.7"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'07.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°59'10.2"
ΔT64.3 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 December 2001
December 14 Descending node (new moon)December 30 Ascending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 132Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 144

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2001

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 144

Inex

Triad

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 1, 1915
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 30, 2088

Lunar eclipses of 1998–2002

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 eclipses on March 13, 1998 and September 6, 1998 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on May 26, 2002 and November 20, 2002 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1998 to 2002
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1091998 Aug 08Penumbral1.48761141999 Jan 31Penumbral−1.0190
1191999 Jul 28Partial0.78631242000 Jan 21Total−0.2957
1292000 Jul 16Total0.03021342001 Jan 09Total0.3720
1392001 Jul 05Partial−0.72871442001 Dec 30Penumbral1.0732
1492002 Jun 24Penumbral−1.4440

Saros 144

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 144, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 29, 1749. It contains partial eclipses from March 28, 2146 through June 23, 2290; total eclipses from July 4, 2308 through January 28, 2651; and a second set of partial eclipses from February 8, 2669 through June 8, 2867. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on September 4, 3011.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 38 at 104 minutes, 53 seconds on September 7, 2416. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2416 Sep 07, lasting 104 minutes, 53 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
1749 Jul 292146 Mar 282308 Jul 042362 Aug 06
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
2488 Oct 202651 Jan 282867 Jun 083011 Sep 04

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 4–26 occur between 1801 and 2200:
456
1803 Sep 011821 Sep 111839 Sep 23
789
1857 Oct 031875 Oct 141893 Oct 25
101112
1911 Nov 061929 Nov 171947 Nov 28
131415
1965 Dec 081983 Dec 202001 Dec 30
161718
2020 Jan 102038 Jan 212056 Feb 01
192021
2074 Feb 112092 Feb 232110 Mar 06
222324
2128 Mar 162146 Mar 282164 Apr 07
2526
2182 Apr 182200 Apr 30

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 2132
1805 Jul 11 (Saros 126)1816 Jun 10 (Saros 127)1827 May 11 (Saros 128)1838 Apr 10 (Saros 129)1849 Mar 09 (Saros 130)
1860 Feb 07 (Saros 131)1871 Jan 06 (Saros 132)1881 Dec 05 (Saros 133)1892 Nov 04 (Saros 134)1903 Oct 06 (Saros 135)
1914 Sep 04 (Saros 136)1925 Aug 04 (Saros 137)1936 Jul 04 (Saros 138)1947 Jun 03 (Saros 139)1958 May 03 (Saros 140)
1969 Apr 02 (Saros 141)1980 Mar 01 (Saros 142)1991 Jan 30 (Saros 143)2001 Dec 30 (Saros 144)2012 Nov 28 (Saros 145)
2023 Oct 28 (Saros 146)2034 Sep 28 (Saros 147)2045 Aug 27 (Saros 148)2056 Jul 26 (Saros 149)2067 Jun 27 (Saros 150)
2132 Dec 22 (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 2200
1828 Apr 29 (Saros 138)1857 Apr 09 (Saros 139)1886 Mar 20 (Saros 140)
1915 Mar 01 (Saros 141)1944 Feb 09 (Saros 142)1973 Jan 18 (Saros 143)
2001 Dec 30 (Saros 144)2030 Dec 09 (Saros 145)2059 Nov 19 (Saros 146)
2088 Oct 30 (Saros 147)2117 Oct 10 (Saros 148)2146 Sep 20 (Saros 149)
2175 Aug 31 (Saros 150)

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 151.

December 24, 1992January 4, 2011

See also

External links