A penumbral

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Eart ...

took place on Thursday, 6 August 2009, the third of four lunar eclipses in 2009. The moon's small entry into the Earth's penumbral shadow produced an extremely subtle dimming of the moon's southern edge, difficult to observe visually.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over Africa and Europe and South America. It was seen rising over eastern North America and setting over Asia. Lunar eclipse from moon-2009Aug06

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 2009

* An annular solar eclipse on 26 January. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on 9 February. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on 7 July. * A total solar eclipse on 22 July. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on 6 August. * A partial lunar eclipse on 31 December.

Lunar year cycles (354 days)

The

lunar year A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gr ...

series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, ''The half-saros'' This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of

Solar Saros 155 Saros cycle series 155 for solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an ec ...

Eclipse season An eclipse season is the period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Moon's tilted orbital plane ( tilted five degrees to the Earth's orbital plane), just as Earth's we ...

This is the third eclipse this season. First eclipse this season: 7 July 2009 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Second eclipse this season: 22 July 2009 Total Solar Eclipse

Gallery

Retour d'éclipse (3794987014).jpg, From

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, 23:31 UTC

Notes

External links

* The eclipse was captured with two digital photographs and combined into one gif file. * 2009-08 2009 in science {{lunar-eclipse-stub