A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Wednesday, October 16, 1940, with an umbral magnitude of −0.3749. 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 21 hours after apogee (on October 15, 1940, at 11:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over North America and western South America, seen rising over East Asia and Australia and setting over eastern South America, West Africa, and Western Europe.

Eclipse details

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

October 16, 1940 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.71567
Umbral Magnitude−0.37489
Gamma−1.19248
Sun Right Ascension13h24m23.2s
Sun Declination-08°52'19.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'03.0"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension01h25m35.5s
Moon Declination+07°50'26.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'43.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°54'00.7"
ΔT24.7 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 October 1940
October 1 Ascending node (new moon)October 16 Descending node (full moon)
Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 133Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 145

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1940

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 145

Inex

Triad

Lunar eclipses of 1937–1940

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 March 23, 1940 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1937 to 1940
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1101937 May 25Penumbral−1.15821151937 Nov 18Partial0.9421
1201938 May 14Total−0.39941251938 Nov 07Total0.2739
1301939 May 03Total0.36931351939 Oct 28Partial−0.4581
1401940 Apr 22Penumbral1.07411451940 Oct 16Penumbral−1.1925

Saros 145

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 145, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 11, 1832. It contains partial eclipses from February 24, 2157 through June 3, 2319; total eclipses from June 14, 2337 through November 13, 2589; and a second set of partial eclipses from November 25, 2607 through June 21, 2950. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on September 16, 3094.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 34 at 104 minutes, 21 seconds on August 7, 2427. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2427 Aug 07, lasting 104 minutes, 21 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
1832 Aug 112157 Feb 242337 Jun 142373 Jul 05
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
2499 Sep 192589 Nov 132950 Jun 213094 Sep 16

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 1–21 occur between 1832 and 2200:
123
1832 Aug 111850 Aug 221868 Sep 02
456
1886 Sep 131904 Sep 241922 Oct 06
789
1940 Oct 161958 Oct 271976 Nov 06
101112
1994 Nov 182012 Nov 282030 Dec 09
131415
2048 Dec 202066 Dec 312085 Jan 10
161718
2103 Jan 232121 Feb 022139 Feb 13
192021
2157 Feb 242175 Mar 072193 Mar 17

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 2060
1809 Oct 23 (Saros 133)1820 Sep 22 (Saros 134)1831 Aug 23 (Saros 135)1842 Jul 22 (Saros 136)1853 Jun 21 (Saros 137)
1864 May 21 (Saros 138)1875 Apr 20 (Saros 139)1886 Mar 20 (Saros 140)1897 Feb 17 (Saros 141)1908 Jan 18 (Saros 142)
1918 Dec 17 (Saros 143)1929 Nov 17 (Saros 144)1940 Oct 16 (Saros 145)1951 Sep 15 (Saros 146)1962 Aug 15 (Saros 147)
1973 Jul 15 (Saros 148)1984 Jun 13 (Saros 149)
2060 Nov 08 (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
1825 Jan 04 (Saros 141)1853 Dec 15 (Saros 142)1882 Nov 25 (Saros 143)
1911 Nov 06 (Saros 144)1940 Oct 16 (Saros 145)1969 Sep 25 (Saros 146)
1998 Sep 06 (Saros 147)2027 Aug 17 (Saros 148)2056 Jul 26 (Saros 149)
2085 Jul 07 (Saros 150)2114 Jun 18 (Saros 151)2143 May 28 (Saros 152)
2172 May 08 (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 152.

October 11, 1931October 21, 1949

See also

Notes

External links