May 2003 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse 16 May 2003
From Minneapolis, MN, 3:17 UTC
The moon's path through the Earth's shadow.
Series (and member)	121 (54 of 82)
Gamma	0.4123
Magnitude	1.12759
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	51:25
Partial	3:13:53
Penumbral	5:06:31
Contacts (UTC)
P1	1:06:53
U1	2:03:11
U2	3:14:26
Greatest	3:40:09
U3	4:05:51
U4	5:17:05
P4	6:13:24
The moon's path across the Earth's shadow near its descending node in Libra.

A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday 16 May 2003, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2003, the other being on 9 November 2003. A shallow total eclipse saw the Moon in relative darkness for 52 minutes and 3.1 seconds. The Moon was 12.938% of its diameter into the Earth's umbral shadow, and should have been significantly darkened. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 15 minutes and 3.1 seconds in total. Occurring only 0.5 days after perigee (Perigee on Thursday 15 May 2003), the Moon's apparent diameter was 6.2% larger than average. At greatest eclipse the Moon was only 357,693 km (222,260 mi) from the Earth, making it a Super Full Moon.

This lunar eclipse is first of a tetrad, four total lunar eclipses in series. The previous series was in 1985 and 1986, starting with a May 1985 lunar eclipse. The next one was in 2014 and 2015, starting with the 15 April 2014 lunar eclipse.

Visibility[edit]

It was completely visible over central Pacific, North America, South America, Atlantic, Europe, Africa and extreme southwestern Asia, seen rising over central Pacific and North America, and setting over Europe and Africa. In South America the entire eclipse was visible lasting just over 5 hours.

Gallery[edit]

Wide Angle view from Minneapolis at 3:35 UTC, near greatest eclipse

Relation to other lunar eclipses[edit]

Eclipse season[edit]

This is the first eclipse this season.

Second eclipse this season: 31 May 2003 Annular Solar Eclipse

Eclipses of 2003[edit]

A total lunar eclipse on 16 May.
An annular solar eclipse (one limit) on 31 May.
A total lunar eclipse on 9 November.
A total solar eclipse on 23 November.

Lunar year series[edit]

It is also the second of four lunar year cycles, repeating every 354 days.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2002–2005
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros Photo	Date View	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros Photo	Date View	Type Chart	Gamma
111	2002 May 26	penumbral	1.1759	116	2002 Nov 20	penumbral	−1.1127
121	2003 May 16	total	0.4123	126	2003 Nov 09	total	−0.4319
131	2004 May 04	total	−0.3132	136	2004 Oct 28	total	0.2846
141	2005 Apr 24	penumbral	−1.0885	146	2005 Oct 17	partial	0.9796

Last set	2002 Jun 24			Last set	2001 Dec 30

Next set	2006 Mar 14			Next set	2006 Sep 07

Metonic series[edit]

This eclipse is the second of four Metonic cycle lunar eclipses on the same date, 15–16 May, each separated by 19 years.

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 be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

1984 May 15.19 - penumbral (111) 2003 May 16.15 - total (121) 2022 May 16.17 - total (131) 2041 May 16.03 - penumbral (141)	1984 Nov 08.75 - penumbral (116) 2003 Nov 09.05 - total (126) 2022 Nov 08.46 - total (136) 2041 Nov 08.19 - partial (146) 2060 Nov 08.17 - penumbral (156)

Half-Saros cycle[edit]

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.