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 Monday, 9 February 2009, the first of four lunar eclipses in 2009, and being the deepest of three penumbral eclipses. It also happened on the

Lantern Festival The Lantern Festival ( zh, t=元宵節, s=元宵节, first=t, hp=Yuánxiāo jié), also called Shangyuan Festival ( zh, t=上元節, s=上元节, first=t, hp=Shàngyuán jié), is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth d ...

, the first since 20 February 1989. The tables below contain detailed predictions and additional information on the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 9 February 2009.

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 second eclipse this season. First eclipse this season: 26 January 2009 Annular Solar Eclipse

Visibility

The eclipse was not visible in the East coast of the United States, South America and southernmost Mexico, Western Africa and western Europe. Best visibility was expected over most of Asia, the Western US, Mexico and throughout the Pacific region.

Map

Photo

File:9th Feb '09 (3267393627).jpg,

Pune, India Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, 13:18 UTC File:P2092867 (3267177130).jpg, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 14:37 UTC File:Full moon tonight with penumbral eclipse @22 46 (3266059269).jpg,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, 14:46 UTC

Relation to other 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.

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 150.

Notes

External links

Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon: 2009 February 09
* 2009-02 2009 in science {{lunar-eclipse-stub