| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 20, 2029 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | −0.3811 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.1190 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 135 (24 of 71) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 53 minutes, 44 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 213 minutes, 18 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 358 minutes, 0 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
A totallunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit on Thursday, December 20, 2029,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of 1.1190. 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 4.6 days beforeapogee (on Sunday, December 16, 2029, at 9:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be smaller.[2]
During the eclipse,NGC 2129 will be occulted by theMoon over theSouth America, theAtlantic Ocean andAfrica.Deep-sky objects are rarely occulted during a total eclipse from any given spot on Earth.[3]: 161
The eclipse will be completely visible over northernNorth America,Africa,Europe, andnorth,west, andcentral Asia, seen rising over North andSouth America and setting overeast Asia andAustralia.[4]
 |
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[5]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Penumbral Magnitude | 2.20231 |
| Umbral Magnitude | 1.11895 |
| Gamma | −0.38110 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 17h57m07.6s |
| Sun Declination | -23°26'00.2" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'15.5" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 05h56m59.0s |
| Moon Declination | +23°05'06.7" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'00.4" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°55'04.6" |
| ΔT | 73.9 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 5 Ascending node (new moon) | December 20 Descending node (full moon) |
|---|---|
 | |
| Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 123 | Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 135 |
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.[6]
The penumbral lunar eclipses onFebruary 20, 2027 andAugust 17, 2027 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses onMay 7, 2031 andOctober 30, 2031 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 2027 to 2031 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 110 | 2027 Jul 18 | Penumbral | −1.5759 | 115 | 2028 Jan 12 | Partial | 0.9818 | |
| 120 | 2028 Jul 06 | Partial | −0.7904 | 125 | 2028 Dec 31 | Total | 0.3258 | |
| 130 | 2029 Jun 26 | Total | 0.0124 | 135 | 2029 Dec 20 | Total | −0.3811 | |
| 140 | 2030 Jun 15 | Partial | 0.7535 | 145 | 2030 Dec 09 | Penumbral | −1.0732 | |
| 150 | 2031 Jun 05 | Penumbral | 1.4732 | |||||
TheMetonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents aSaros 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.
| Ascending node | Descending node |
|---|---|
|
|
 |  |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 135, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on April 13, 1615. It contains partial eclipses from July 20, 1777 throughOctober 28, 1939; total eclipses fromNovember 7, 1957 through July 6, 2354; and a second set of partial eclipses from July 16, 2372 through September 19, 2480. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on May 18, 2877.
The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 37 at 106 minutes, 13 seconds on May 12, 2264. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit.[7]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on2264 May 12, lasting 106 minutes, 13 seconds.[8] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 1615 Apr 13 | 1777 Jul 20 | 1957 Nov 07 | 2174 Mar 18 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
| 2318 Jun 14 | 2354 Jul 06 | 2480 Sep 19 | 2877 May 18 | |
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 12–33 occur between 1801 and 2200: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 13 | 14 | |||
| 1813 Aug 12 | 1831 Aug 23 | 1849 Sep 02 | |||
| 15 | 16 | 17 | |||
| 1867 Sep 14 | 1885 Sep 24 | 1903 Oct 06 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 18 | 19 | 20 | |||
| 1921 Oct 16 | 1939 Oct 28 | 1957 Nov 07 | |||
 |  |  |  | |  |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | |||
| 1975 Nov 18 | 1993 Nov 29 | 2011 Dec 10 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | |||
| 2029 Dec 20 | 2048 Jan 01 | 2066 Jan 11 | |||
| |  |  |  |  |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | |||
| 2084 Jan 22 | 2102 Feb 03 | 2120 Feb 14 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 30 | 31 | 32 | |||
| 2138 Feb 24 | 2156 Mar 07 | 2174 Mar 18 | |||
| 33 | |||||
| 2192 Mar 28 | |||||
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 Sep 02 (Saros 115) | 1822 Aug 03 (Saros 116) | 1833 Jul 02 (Saros 117) | 1844 May 31 (Saros 118) | 1855 May 02 (Saros 119) | |||||
| 1866 Mar 31 (Saros 120) | 1877 Feb 27 (Saros 121) | 1888 Jan 28 (Saros 122) | 1898 Dec 27 (Saros 123) | 1909 Nov 27 (Saros 124) | |||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1920 Oct 27 (Saros 125) | 1931 Sep 26 (Saros 126) | 1942 Aug 26 (Saros 127) | 1953 Jul 26 (Saros 128) | 1964 Jun 25 (Saros 129) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 1975 May 25 (Saros 130) | 1986 Apr 24 (Saros 131) | 1997 Mar 24 (Saros 132) | 2008 Feb 21 (Saros 133) | 2019 Jan 21 (Saros 134) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2029 Dec 20 (Saros 135) | 2040 Nov 18 (Saros 136) | 2051 Oct 19 (Saros 137) | 2062 Sep 18 (Saros 138) | 2073 Aug 17 (Saros 139) | |||||
| |  |  |  |  | ||||
| 2084 Jul 17 (Saros 140) | 2095 Jun 17 (Saros 141) | 2106 May 17 (Saros 142) | 2117 Apr 16 (Saros 143) | 2128 Mar 16 (Saros 144) | |||||
| 2139 Feb 13 (Saros 145) | 2150 Jan 13 (Saros 146) | 2160 Dec 13 (Saros 147) | 2171 Nov 12 (Saros 148) | 2182 Oct 11 (Saros 149) | |||||
| 2193 Sep 11 (Saros 150) | |||||||||
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1827 May 11 (Saros 128) | 1856 Apr 20 (Saros 129) | 1885 Mar 30 (Saros 130) | |||
| 1914 Mar 12 (Saros 131) | 1943 Feb 20 (Saros 132) | 1972 Jan 30 (Saros 133) | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2001 Jan 09 (Saros 134) | 2029 Dec 20 (Saros 135) | 2058 Nov 30 (Saros 136) | |||
 |  | | |  |  |
| 2087 Nov 10 (Saros 137) | 2116 Oct 21 (Saros 138) | 2145 Sep 30 (Saros 139) | |||
| 2174 Sep 11 (Saros 140) | |||||
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (ahalf saros).[9] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 142.
| December 14, 2020 | December 26, 2038 |
|---|---|
 |  |
_(cropped).jpg)
