A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, October 7, 1987, with an umbral magnitude of −0.0095. 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 3.1 days after perigee (on October 4, 1987, at 1:35 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over much of North America, South America, west Africa, and western Europe, seen rising over northwestern North America and the central Pacific Ocean and setting over much of Africa, Europe, and west and central Asia.

Eclipse details

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

October 7, 1987 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude0.98640
Umbral Magnitude−0.00949
Gamma1.01890
Sun Right Ascension12h49m09.5s
Sun Declination-05°16'24.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'00.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension00h47m14.4s
Moon Declination+06°09'13.6"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'04.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°58'58.1"
ΔT55.6 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 September–October 1987
September 23 Descending node (new moon)October 7 Ascending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 134Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 146

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1987

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 146

Inex

Triad

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 6, 1900
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 7, 2074

Lunar eclipses of 1984–1987

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 June 13, 1984 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1984 to 1987
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1111984 May 15Penumbral1.11311161984 Nov 08Penumbral−1.0900
1211985 May 04Total0.35201261985 Oct 28Total−0.4022
1311986 Apr 24Total−0.36831361986 Oct 17Total0.3189
1411987 Apr 14Penumbral−1.13641461987 Oct 07Penumbral1.0189

Saros 146

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 146, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 11, 1843. It contains partial eclipses from October 17, 2005 through May 14, 2348; total eclipses from May 25, 2366 through November 16, 2654; and a second set of partial eclipses from November 27, 2672 through June 12, 2997. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on August 29, 3123.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 37 at 99 minutes, 22 seconds on August 8, 2492. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

GreatestFirst
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2492 Aug 08, lasting 99 minutes, 22 seconds.PenumbralPartialTotalCentral
1843 Jul 112005 Oct 172366 May 252438 Jul 07
Last
CentralTotalPartialPenumbral
2546 Sep 112654 Nov 162997 Jun 123123 Aug 29

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 1–20 occur between 1843 and 2200:
123
1843 Jul 111861 Jul 211879 Aug 02
456
1897 Aug 121915 Aug 241933 Sep 04
789
1951 Sep 151969 Sep 251987 Oct 07
101112
2005 Oct 172023 Oct 282041 Nov 08
131415
2059 Nov 192077 Nov 292095 Dec 11
161718
2113 Dec 222132 Jan 022150 Jan 13
1920
2168 Jan 242186 Feb 04

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 2200
1814 Feb 04 (Saros 140)1843 Jan 16 (Saros 141)1871 Dec 26 (Saros 142)
1900 Dec 06 (Saros 143)1929 Nov 17 (Saros 144)1958 Oct 27 (Saros 145)
1987 Oct 07 (Saros 146)2016 Sep 16 (Saros 147)2045 Aug 27 (Saros 148)
2074 Aug 07 (Saros 149)2103 Jul 19 (Saros 150)2132 Jun 28 (Saros 151)
2161 Jun 08 (Saros 152)2190 May 19 (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 153.

October 2, 1978October 12, 1996

See also

Notes

External links