August 2009 lunar eclipse

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 6 August 2009
This subtle penumbral eclipse covered the southern part of the Moon as shown in this animation by John Walker, viewed from Lignières, Switzerland.
The Moon grazed the Earth's southern penumbral shadow.
Series (and member)	148 (3 of 71)
Gamma	1.3572
Magnitude	0.4019
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Penumbral	3:09:47
Contacts (UTC)
P1	23:04:21 (Aug 5)
Greatest	0:39:11
P4	2:14:08
The Moon's hourly motion west to east through the constellation of Capricornus and the northern edge of the Earth's penumbral shadow

A penumbral lunar eclipse took place on 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.

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 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.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2006–2009
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros # and photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros # and photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
113	2006 Mar 14	penumbral	1.0211		118	2006 Sep 7	partial	−0.9262
123	2007 Mar 03	total	0.3175		128	2007 Aug 28	total	−0.2146
133	2008 Feb 21	total	−0.3992		138	2008 Aug 16	partial	0.5646
143	2009 Feb 09	penumbral	−1.0640		148	2009 Aug 06	penumbral	1.3572
Last set	2005 Apr 24				Last set	2005 Oct 17
Next set	2009 Dec 31				Next set	2009 Jul 07

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 155.

31 July 2000	11 August 2018

Eclipse season

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

See also

• List of lunar eclipses and List of 21st-century lunar eclipses

Gallery

• 
  From France, 23:31 UTC

External links

• John Walker (7 August 2009). "Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Imaged". Retrieved 23 August 2009. The eclipse was captured with two digital photographs and combined into one gif file.
• 2009 Aug 06 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC