A penumbral

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, ...

occurred at the Moon’s

ascending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Wednesday, November 20, 2002, with an umbral

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of −0.2246. A lunar eclipse occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

moves into the

Earth's shadow Earth's shadow (or Earth shadow) is the shadow that Earth itself casts through its atmosphere and into outer space, toward the antisolar point. During the twilight period (both early dusk and late dawn), the shadow's visible fringe – someti ...

, 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 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 Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the

night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...

side of Earth. Occurring about 3.8 days after

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

(on November 16, 2002, at 6:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible much of

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, seen rising over western North America and the eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

and setting over

east Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

and

west West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

, central, and

south Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

Eclipse details

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

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an

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

, 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 A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2002

* A penumbral lunar eclipse on May 26. * An annular solar eclipse on June 10. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on June 24. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on November 20. * A total solar eclipse on December 4.

Metonic

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 31, 1999 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 7, 2006

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 8, 1995 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 31, 2009

Half-Saros

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of November 13, 1993 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14, 1993, with a magnitude of 0.928. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally o ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of November 25, 2011 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, November 25, 2011, with a magnitude of 0.9047. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image ...

Tritos

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 21, 1991 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 18, 2013

Lunar Saros 116

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 8, 1984 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 30, 2020

Inex

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 10, 1973 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 30, 2031

Triad

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 20, 1916 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 19, 2089

Lunar eclipses of 2002–2005

Metonic series

* First eclipse: 20 November 2002. * Second eclipse: 19 November 2021. * Third eclipse: 18 November 2040. * Fourth eclipse: 19 November 2059. * Fifth eclipse: 19 November 2078.

Saros 116

Tritos series

Inex series

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 123 Saros cycle series 123 for solar eclipses occurs at the Moon's ascending lunar node, node, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 eclipses, 44 of which are umbral (27 annular, 3 hybrid, 14 total). The first eclipse in the series was on ...

References

External links

Saros cycle 116
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar eclipse 2002-11 2002-11 2002 in science