| Penumbral eclipse | |||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||
| Date | December 29, 1944 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | −1.0115 | ||||||||
| Magnitude | −0.0176 | ||||||||
| Saros cycle | 114 (55 of 71) | ||||||||
| Penumbral | 266 minutes, 39 seconds | ||||||||
| |||||||||
A penumbrallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sascending node of orbit on Friday, December 29, 1944,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of −0.0176. It was a relatively raretotal penumbral lunar eclipse, with the Moon passing entirely within the penumbral shadow without entering the darker umbral shadow. A lunar eclipse occurs when theMoon moves into theEarth's shadow, 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 asolar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on thenight side of Earth. Occurring about 6 days afterperigee (on December 23, 1944, at 12:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
This eclipse was the last of four penumbral lunar eclipses in 1944, with the others occurring onFebruary 9,July 6, andAugust 4.
Saturn was conjunct with the Moon during this eclipse.
The eclipse was completely visible over much ofAsia,Australia, and northwesternNorth America, seen rising overEurope,east Africa, and theMiddle East and setting over much of North America and the easternPacific Ocean.[3]
 |
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[4]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Penumbral Magnitude | 1.02198 |
| Umbral Magnitude | −0.01757 |
| Gamma | −1.01151 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 18h33m56.1s |
| Sun Declination | -23°12'58.6" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'15.9" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 06h34m05.9s |
| Moon Declination | +22°14'56.3" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'38.8" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°57'25.5" |
| ΔT | 26.9 s |
This eclipse is part of aneclipse season, 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 afortnight.
| December 29 Ascending node (full moon) | January 14 Descending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 114 | Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 140 |
This eclipse is a member of asemester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternatingnodes of the Moon's orbit.[5]
The penumbral lunar eclipses onFebruary 9, 1944 andAugust 4, 1944 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 1944 to 1947 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 109 | 1944 Jul 06 | Penumbral | 1.2597 | 114 | 1944 Dec 29 | Penumbral | −1.0115 | |
| 119 | 1945 Jun 25 | Partial | 0.5370 | 124 | 1945 Dec 19 | Total | −0.2845 | |
| 129 | 1946 Jun 14 | Total | −0.2324 | 134 | 1946 Dec 08 | Total | 0.3864 | |
| 139 | 1947 Jun 03 | Partial | −0.9850 | 144 | 1947 Nov 28 | Penumbral | 1.0838 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 114, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 13, 971 AD. It contains partial eclipses from August 7, 1115 through February 18, 1440; total eclipses from February 28, 1458 through July 17, 1674; and a second set of partial eclipses from July 28, 1692 through November 26, 1890. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 22, 2233.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 35 at 106 minutes, 5 seconds on May 24, 1584. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sascending node of orbit.[6]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on1584 May 24, lasting 106 minutes, 5 seconds.[7] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 971 May 13 | 1115 Aug 07 | 1458 Feb 28 | 1530 Apr 12 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
| 1638 Jun 26 | 1674 Jul 17 | 1890 Nov 26 | 2233 Jun 22 | |
Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is oneexeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
| Series members 48–69 occur between 1801 and 2200: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | 49 | 50 | |||
| 1818 Oct 14 | 1836 Oct 24 | 1854 Nov 04 | |||
| 51 | 52 | 53 | |||
| 1872 Nov 15 | 1890 Nov 26 | 1908 Dec 07 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 54 | 55 | 56 | |||
| 1926 Dec 19 | 1944 Dec 29 | 1963 Jan 09 | |||
 |  | | |  |  |
| 57 | 58 | 59 | |||
| 1981 Jan 20 | 1999 Jan 31 | 2017 Feb 11 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 60 | 61 | 62 | |||
| 2035 Feb 22 | 2053 Mar 04 | 2071 Mar 16 | |||
 |  |  |  | ||
| 63 | 64 | 65 | |||
| 2089 Mar 26 | 2107 Apr 07 | 2125 Apr 18 | |||
| 66 | 67 | 68 | |||
| 2143 Apr 29 | 2161 May 09 | 2179 May 21 | |||
| 69 | |||||
| 2197 May 31 | |||||
This eclipse is a part of atritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
| Series members between 1801 and 2200 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1803 Feb 06 (Saros 101) | 1814 Jan 06 (Saros 102) | 1824 Dec 06 (Saros 103) | 1846 Oct 04 (Saros 105) | ||||||
| 1857 Sep 04 (Saros 106) | 1868 Aug 03 (Saros 107) | 1879 Jul 03 (Saros 108) | 1890 Jun 03 (Saros 109) | 1901 May 03 (Saros 110) | |||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1912 Apr 01 (Saros 111) | 1923 Mar 03 (Saros 112) | 1934 Jan 30 (Saros 113) | 1944 Dec 29 (Saros 114) | 1955 Nov 29 (Saros 115) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  | | |  |  |
| 1966 Oct 29 (Saros 116) | 1977 Sep 27 (Saros 117) | 1988 Aug 27 (Saros 118) | 1999 Jul 28 (Saros 119) | 2010 Jun 26 (Saros 120) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2021 May 26 (Saros 121) | 2032 Apr 25 (Saros 122) | 2043 Mar 25 (Saros 123) | 2054 Feb 22 (Saros 124) | 2065 Jan 22 (Saros 125) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
| 2075 Dec 22 (Saros 126) | 2086 Nov 20 (Saros 127) | 2097 Oct 21 (Saros 128) | 2108 Sep 20 (Saros 129) | 2119 Aug 20 (Saros 130) | |||||
| 2130 Jul 21 (Saros 131) | 2141 Jun 19 (Saros 132) | 2152 May 18 (Saros 133) | 2163 Apr 19 (Saros 134) | 2174 Mar 18 (Saros 135) | |||||
| 2185 Feb 14 (Saros 136) | 2196 Jan 15 (Saros 137) | ||||||||
This eclipse is a part of the long periodinex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
| Series members between 1801 and 2200 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1829 Mar 20 (Saros 110) | 1858 Feb 27 (Saros 111) | 1887 Feb 08 (Saros 112) | |||
| 1916 Jan 20 (Saros 113) | 1944 Dec 29 (Saros 114) | 1973 Dec 10 (Saros 115) | |||
 |  | | |  |  |
| 2002 Nov 20 (Saros 116) | 2031 Oct 30 (Saros 117) | 2060 Oct 09 (Saros 118) | |||
 |  |  |  | ||
| 2089 Sep 19 (Saros 119) | 2118 Aug 31 (Saros 120) | 2147 Aug 11 (Saros 121) | |||
| 2176 Jul 21 (Saros 122) | |||||
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (ahalf saros).[8] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 121.
| December 25, 1935 | January 5, 1954 |
|---|---|
 |  |
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