A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, June 5, 1955, with an umbral magnitude of −0.4498. 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 11 hours after apogee (on June 5, 1955, at 3:45 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over east, Australia, and Antarctica, seen rising over the western half of Asia and east Africa and setting over the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Eclipse details

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

June 5, 1955 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.62181
Umbral Magnitude−0.44978
Gamma−1.23842
Sun Right Ascension04h51m12.9s
Sun Declination+22°30'11.9"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'45.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.7"
Moon Right Ascension16h51m07.1s
Moon Declination-23°37'02.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'42.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°53'59.1"
ΔT31.2 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 June 1955
June 5 Ascending node (full moon)June 20 Descending node (new moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 110Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 136

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1955

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 110

Inex

Triad

Lunar eclipses of 1955–1958

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 January 8, 1955 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse on April 4, 1958 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1955 to 1958
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1101955 Jun 05Penumbral−1.23841151955 Nov 29Partial0.9551
1201956 May 24Partial−0.47261251956 Nov 18Total0.2917
1301957 May 13Total0.30461351957 Nov 07Total−0.4332
1401958 May 03Partial1.01881451958 Oct 27Penumbral−1.1571

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 1835 and 2200
1835 May 12 (Saros 99)1846 Apr 11 (Saros 100)1868 Feb 08 (Saros 102)1879 Jan 08 (Saros 103)
1933 Aug 05 (Saros 108)
1944 Jul 06 (Saros 109)1955 Jun 05 (Saros 110)1966 May 04 (Saros 111)1977 Apr 04 (Saros 112)1988 Mar 03 (Saros 113)
1999 Jan 31 (Saros 114)2009 Dec 31 (Saros 115)2020 Nov 30 (Saros 116)2031 Oct 30 (Saros 117)2042 Sep 29 (Saros 118)
2053 Aug 29 (Saros 119)2064 Jul 28 (Saros 120)2075 Jun 28 (Saros 121)2086 May 28 (Saros 122)2097 Apr 26 (Saros 123)
2108 Mar 27 (Saros 124)2119 Feb 25 (Saros 125)2130 Jan 24 (Saros 126)2140 Dec 23 (Saros 127)2151 Nov 24 (Saros 128)
2162 Oct 23 (Saros 129)2173 Sep 21 (Saros 130)2184 Aug 21 (Saros 131)2195 Jul 22 (Saros 132)

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
1810 Sep 13 (Saros 105)1839 Aug 24 (Saros 106)1868 Aug 03 (Saros 107)
1897 Jul 14 (Saros 108)1926 Jun 25 (Saros 109)1955 Jun 05 (Saros 110)
1984 May 15 (Saros 111)2013 Apr 25 (Saros 112)2042 Apr 05 (Saros 113)
2071 Mar 16 (Saros 114)2100 Feb 24 (Saros 115)2129 Feb 04 (Saros 116)
2158 Jan 14 (Saros 117)2186 Dec 26 (Saros 118)

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.

May 30, 1946June 10, 1964

See also

Notes

External links