A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Monday, October 17, 2005, with an umbral magnitude of 0.0645. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in 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 before perigee (on October 14, 2005, at 10:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible much of Australia, east Asia, and western North America, seen rising over much of Asia and setting over much of North America and western South America.

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

Images

NASA chart of the eclipse

Gallery

Eclipse details

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

October 17, 2005 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude1.06046
Umbral Magnitude0.06446
Gamma0.97960
Sun Right Ascension13h29m41.7s
Sun Declination-09°23'29.0"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'03.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension01h27m54.2s
Moon Declination+10°15'01.0"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'06.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°59'08.7"
ΔT64.8 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 2005
October 3 Descending node (new moon)October 17 Ascending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 134Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 146

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2005

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 146

Inex

Triad

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 17, 1918
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 17, 2092

Lunar eclipses of 2002–2005

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 24, 2002 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2002 to 2005
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosDate ViewingType ChartGammaSarosDate ViewingType ChartGamma
1112002 May 26Penumbral1.17591162002 Nov 20Penumbral−1.1127
1212003 May 16Total0.41231262003 Nov 09Total−0.4319
1312004 May 04Total−0.31321362004 Oct 28Total0.2846
1412005 Apr 24Penumbral−1.08851462005 Oct 17Partial0.9796

Metonic series

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

Metonic lunar eclipse sets 1948–2005
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosDateTypeSarosDateType
1111948 Apr 23Partial1161948 Oct 18Penumbral
1211967 Apr 24Total1261967 Oct 18Total
1311986 Apr 24Total1361986 Oct 17Total
1412005 Apr 24Penumbral1462005 Oct 17Partial

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 2147
1809 Apr 30 (Saros 128)1820 Mar 29 (Saros 129)1831 Feb 26 (Saros 130)1842 Jan 26 (Saros 131)1852 Dec 26 (Saros 132)
1863 Nov 25 (Saros 133)1874 Oct 25 (Saros 134)1885 Sep 24 (Saros 135)1896 Aug 23 (Saros 136)1907 Jul 25 (Saros 137)
1918 Jun 24 (Saros 138)1929 May 23 (Saros 139)1940 Apr 22 (Saros 140)1951 Mar 23 (Saros 141)1962 Feb 19 (Saros 142)
1973 Jan 18 (Saros 143)1983 Dec 20 (Saros 144)1994 Nov 18 (Saros 145)2005 Oct 17 (Saros 146)2016 Sep 16 (Saros 147)
2027 Aug 17 (Saros 148)2038 Jul 16 (Saros 149)2049 Jun 15 (Saros 150)
2114 Dec 12 (Saros 156)
2147 Sep 09 (Saros 159)

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
1803 Mar 08 (Saros 139)1832 Feb 16 (Saros 140)1861 Jan 26 (Saros 141)
1890 Jan 06 (Saros 142)1918 Dec 17 (Saros 143)1947 Nov 28 (Saros 144)
1976 Nov 06 (Saros 145)2005 Oct 17 (Saros 146)2034 Sep 28 (Saros 147)
2063 Sep 07 (Saros 148)2092 Aug 17 (Saros 149)2121 Jul 30 (Saros 150)
2150 Jul 09 (Saros 151)2179 Jun 19 (Saros 152)

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 12, 1996October 23, 2014

See also

External links

  • Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Photos Kaituna, Wairarapa, New Zealand Taipei, Taiwan Seoul, South Korea