A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, with an umbral magnitude of −0.9116. 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 only about 8 hours before apogee (on July 7, 2009, at 17:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller. This eclipse entered only the southernmost tip of the penumbral shadow and thus was predicted to be very difficult to observe visually.

This eclipse was the second of four lunar eclipses in 2009, with the others occurring on February 9 (penumbral), August 6 (penumbral), and December 31 (partial).

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over eastern Australia and western North and South America, seen rising over western Australia and setting over eastern North and South America.

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

Eclipse details

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

July 7, 2009 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.15783
Umbral Magnitude−0.91159
Gamma−1.49158
Sun Right Ascension07h06m54.1s
Sun Declination+22°32'55.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'43.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.7"
Moon Right Ascension19h08m08.1s
Moon Declination-23°51'38.0"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'42.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°53'59.3"
ΔT65.9 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. 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 110

Inex

Triad

  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 7, 2096

Lunar eclipses of 2009–2013

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 February 9, 2009 and August 6, 2009 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the lunar eclipses on April 25, 2013 (partial) and October 18, 2013 (penumbral) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2009 to 2013
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1102009 Jul 07Penumbral−1.49161152009 Dec 31Partial0.9766
1202010 Jun 26Partial−0.70911252010 Dec 21Total0.3214
1302011 Jun 15Total0.08971352011 Dec 10Total−0.3882
1402012 Jun 04Partial0.82481452012 Nov 28Penumbral−1.0869
1502013 May 25Penumbral1.5351

Saros 110

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 110, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 28, 747 AD. It contains partial eclipses from August 23, 891 AD through April 18, 1288; total eclipses from April 29, 1306 through September 5, 1522; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 16, 1540 through April 22, 1883. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on July 18, 2027.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 38 at 103 minutes, 8 seconds on July 3, 1414. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1414 Jul 03, lasting 103 minutes, 8 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
747 May 28891 Aug 231306 Apr 291360 May 31
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
1468 Aug 041522 Sep 051883 Apr 222027 Jul 18

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 60–72 occur between 1801 and 2027:
606162
1811 Mar 101829 Mar 201847 Mar 31
636465
1865 Apr 111883 Apr 221901 May 03
666768
1919 May 151937 May 251955 Jun 05
697071
1973 Jun 151991 Jun 272009 Jul 07
72
2027 Jul 18

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 1922 and 2200
1922 Mar 13 (Saros 102)1933 Feb 10 (Saros 103)
1998 Aug 08 (Saros 109)2009 Jul 07 (Saros 110)2020 Jun 05 (Saros 111)
2031 May 07 (Saros 112)2042 Apr 05 (Saros 113)2053 Mar 04 (Saros 114)2064 Feb 02 (Saros 115)2075 Jan 02 (Saros 116)
2085 Dec 01 (Saros 117)2096 Oct 31 (Saros 118)2107 Oct 02 (Saros 119)2118 Aug 31 (Saros 120)2129 Jul 31 (Saros 121)
2140 Jun 30 (Saros 122)2151 May 30 (Saros 123)2162 Apr 29 (Saros 124)2173 Mar 29 (Saros 125)2184 Feb 26 (Saros 126)
2195 Jan 26 (Saros 127)

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
1806 Nov 26 (Saros 103)1864 Oct 15 (Saros 105)
1893 Sep 25 (Saros 106)1951 Aug 17 (Saros 108)
1980 Jul 27 (Saros 109)2009 Jul 07 (Saros 110)2038 Jun 17 (Saros 111)
2067 May 28 (Saros 112)2096 May 07 (Saros 113)2125 Apr 18 (Saros 114)
2154 Mar 29 (Saros 115)2183 Mar 09 (Saros 116)

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 117.

July 1, 2000July 13, 2018

See also

Notes

External links