| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 30, 1963 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | −0.2889 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.3350 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 124 (46 of 74) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 78 minutes, 7 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 204 minutes, 18 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 319 minutes, 57 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
A totallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sascending node of orbit on Monday, December 30, 1963,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of 1.3350. A lunar eclipse occurs when theMoon moves into theEarth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. 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. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon'sshadow is smaller. Occurring about 1.5 days afterperigee (on December 29, 1963, at 0:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
The eclipse was completely visible overnortheast Asia and much ofNorth America, seen rising over much ofAsia andAustralia and setting over eastern North America andSouth America.[3]
 |
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[4]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Penumbral Magnitude | 2.32062 |
| Umbral Magnitude | 1.33504 |
| Gamma | −0.28889 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 18h34m56.9s |
| Sun Declination | -23°12'00.5" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'15.9" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 06h34m59.9s |
| Moon Declination | +22°54'31.5" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'30.2" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°00'34.1" |
| ΔT | 35.1 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 30 Ascending node (full moon) | January 14 Descending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 124 | Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 150 |
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 19, 1962 andAugust 15, 1962 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 1962 to 1965 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 109 | 1962 Jul 17 | Penumbral | 1.3371 | 114 | 1963 Jan 09 | Penumbral | −1.0128 | |
| 119 | 1963 Jul 06 | Partial | 0.6197 | 124 | 1963 Dec 30 | Total | −0.2889 | |
| 129 | 1964 Jun 25 | Total | −0.1461 | 134 | 1964 Dec 19 | Total | 0.3801 | |
| 139 | 1965 Jun 14 | Partial | −0.9006 | 144 | 1965 Dec 08 | Penumbral | 1.0775 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 124, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 17, 1152. It contains partial eclipses from March 21, 1513 through June 15, 1639; total eclipses from June 25, 1657 through April 18, 2144; and a second set of partial eclipses from April 29, 2162 through July 14, 2288. The series ends at member 73 as a penumbral eclipse on October 21, 2450.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 39 at 101 minutes, 27 seconds on August 30, 1765. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sascending node of orbit.[6]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on1765 Aug 30, lasting 101 minutes, 27 seconds.[7] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 1152 Aug 17 | 1513 Mar 21 | 1657 Jun 25 | 1711 Jul 29 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
1909 Nov 27 | 2144 Apr 18 | 2288 Jul 14 | 2450 Oct 21 | |
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 37–59 occur between 1801 and 2200: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 38 | 39 | |||
| 1801 Sep 22 | 1819 Oct 03 | 1837 Oct 13 | |||
| 40 | 41 | 42 | |||
| 1855 Oct 25 | 1873 Nov 04 | 1891 Nov 16 | |||
| 43 | 44 | 45 | |||
| 1909 Nov 27 | 1927 Dec 08 | 1945 Dec 19 | |||
|  |  |  |  |  |
| 46 | 47 | 48 | |||
| 1963 Dec 30 | 1982 Jan 09 | 2000 Jan 21 | |||
| |  |  |  |  |
| 49 | 50 | 51 | |||
| 2018 Jan 31 | 2036 Feb 11 | 2054 Feb 22 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 52 | 53 | 54 | |||
| 2072 Mar 04 | 2090 Mar 15 | 2108 Mar 27 | |||
| 55 | 56 | 57 | |||
| 2126 Apr 07 | 2144 Apr 18 | 2162 Apr 29 | |||
| 58 | 59 | ||||
| 2180 May 09 | 2198 May 20 | ||||
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 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1811 Mar 10 (Saros 110) | 1822 Feb 06 (Saros 111) | 1833 Jan 06 (Saros 112) | 1843 Dec 07 (Saros 113) | 1854 Nov 04 (Saros 114) | |||||
| 1865 Oct 04 (Saros 115) | 1876 Sep 03 (Saros 116) | 1887 Aug 03 (Saros 117) | 1898 Jul 03 (Saros 118) | 1909 Jun 04 (Saros 119) | |||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1920 May 03 (Saros 120) | 1931 Apr 02 (Saros 121) | 1942 Mar 03 (Saros 122) | 1953 Jan 29 (Saros 123) | 1963 Dec 30 (Saros 124) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | |
| 1974 Nov 29 (Saros 125) | 1985 Oct 28 (Saros 126) | 1996 Sep 27 (Saros 127) | 2007 Aug 28 (Saros 128) | 2018 Jul 27 (Saros 129) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2029 Jun 26 (Saros 130) | 2040 May 26 (Saros 131) | 2051 Apr 26 (Saros 132) | 2062 Mar 25 (Saros 133) | 2073 Feb 22 (Saros 134) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  | ||||
| 2084 Jan 22 (Saros 135) | 2094 Dec 21 (Saros 136) | 2105 Nov 21 (Saros 137) | 2116 Oct 21 (Saros 138) | 2127 Sep 20 (Saros 139) | |||||
 |  |  |  | ||||||
| 2138 Aug 20 (Saros 140) | 2149 Jul 20 (Saros 141) | 2160 Jun 18 (Saros 142) | 2171 May 19 (Saros 143) | 2182 Apr 18 (Saros 144) | |||||
| 2193 Mar 17 (Saros 145) | |||||||||
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1819 Apr 10 (Saros 119) | 1848 Mar 19 (Saros 120) | 1877 Feb 27 (Saros 121) | |||
| 1906 Feb 09 (Saros 122) | 1935 Jan 19 (Saros 123) | 1963 Dec 30 (Saros 124) | |||
 |  |  |  | | |
| 1992 Dec 09 (Saros 125) | 2021 Nov 19 (Saros 126) | 2050 Oct 30 (Saros 127) | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2079 Oct 10 (Saros 128) | 2108 Sep 20 (Saros 129) | 2137 Aug 30 (Saros 130) | |||
 |  | ||||
| 2166 Aug 11 (Saros 131) | 2195 Jul 22 (Saros 132) | ||||
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 131.
| December 25, 1954 | January 4, 1973 |
|---|---|
 |  |
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