| Penumbral eclipse | |||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||
| Date | June 5, 1955 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | −1.2384 | ||||||||
| Magnitude | −0.4498 | ||||||||
| Saros cycle | 110 (68 of 72) | ||||||||
| Penumbral | 232 minutes, 18 seconds | ||||||||
| |||||||||
A penumbrallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sascending node of orbit on Sunday, June 5, 1955,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of −0.4498. 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 only about 11 hours afterapogee (on June 5, 1955, at 3:45 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
The eclipse was completely visible overeast,Australia, andAntarctica, seen rising over the western half ofAsia andeast Africa and setting over 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 | 0.62181 |
| Umbral Magnitude | −0.44978 |
| Gamma | −1.23842 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 04h51m12.9s |
| Sun Declination | +22°30'11.9" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'45.8" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 16h51m07.1s |
| Moon Declination | -23°37'02.2" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'42.6" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°53'59.1" |
| ΔT | 31.2 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.
| June 5 Ascending node (full moon) | June 20 Descending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 110 | Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 136 |
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 eclipse onJanuary 8, 1955 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse onApril 4, 1958 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 1955 to 1958 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 110 | 1955 Jun 05 | Penumbral | −1.2384 | 115 | 1955 Nov 29 | Partial | 0.9551 | |
| 120 | 1956 May 24 | Partial | −0.4726 | 125 | 1956 Nov 18 | Total | 0.2917 | |
| 130 | 1957 May 13 | Total | 0.3046 | 135 | 1957 Nov 07 | Total | −0.4332 | |
| 140 | 1958 May 03 | Partial | 1.0188 | 145 | 1958 Oct 27 | Penumbral | −1.1571 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 110, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 28, 747 AD. It contains partial eclipses from August 23, 891 AD through April 18, 1288; total eclipses from April 29, 1306 through September 5, 1522; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 16, 1540 through April 22, 1883. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse onJuly 18, 2027.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 38 at 103 minutes, 8 seconds on July 3, 1414. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sascending node of orbit.[6]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on1414 Jul 03, lasting 103 minutes, 8 seconds.[7] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 747 May 28 | 891 Aug 23 | 1306 Apr 29 | 1360 May 31 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
| 1468 Aug 04 | 1522 Sep 05 | 1883 Apr 22 | 2027 Jul 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 60–72 occur between 1801 and 2027: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 61 | 62 | |||
| 1811 Mar 10 | 1829 Mar 20 | 1847 Mar 31 | |||
| 63 | 64 | 65 | |||
| 1865 Apr 11 | 1883 Apr 22 | 1901 May 03 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 66 | 67 | 68 | |||
| 1919 May 15 | 1937 May 25 | 1955 Jun 05 | |||
 |  |  |  | | |
| 69 | 70 | 71 | |||
| 1973 Jun 15 | 1991 Jun 27 | 2009 Jul 07 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 72 | |||||
| 2027 Jul 18 | |||||
|  | ||||
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 1835 and 2200 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1835 May 12 (Saros 99) | 1846 Apr 11 (Saros 100) | 1868 Feb 08 (Saros 102) | 1879 Jan 08 (Saros 103) | ||||||
| 1933 Aug 05 (Saros 108) | |||||||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1944 Jul 06 (Saros 109) | 1955 Jun 05 (Saros 110) | 1966 May 04 (Saros 111) | 1977 Apr 04 (Saros 112) | 1988 Mar 03 (Saros 113) | |||||
 |  | | |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 1999 Jan 31 (Saros 114) | 2009 Dec 31 (Saros 115) | 2020 Nov 30 (Saros 116) | 2031 Oct 30 (Saros 117) | 2042 Sep 29 (Saros 118) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2053 Aug 29 (Saros 119) | 2064 Jul 28 (Saros 120) | 2075 Jun 28 (Saros 121) | 2086 May 28 (Saros 122) | 2097 Apr 26 (Saros 123) | |||||
 | |||||||||
| 2108 Mar 27 (Saros 124) | 2119 Feb 25 (Saros 125) | 2130 Jan 24 (Saros 126) | 2140 Dec 23 (Saros 127) | 2151 Nov 24 (Saros 128) | |||||
| 2162 Oct 23 (Saros 129) | 2173 Sep 21 (Saros 130) | 2184 Aug 21 (Saros 131) | 2195 Jul 22 (Saros 132) | ||||||
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1810 Sep 13 (Saros 105) | 1839 Aug 24 (Saros 106) | 1868 Aug 03 (Saros 107) | |||
| 1897 Jul 14 (Saros 108) | 1926 Jun 25 (Saros 109) | 1955 Jun 05 (Saros 110) | |||
 |  | | | ||
| 1984 May 15 (Saros 111) | 2013 Apr 25 (Saros 112) | 2042 Apr 05 (Saros 113) | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2071 Mar 16 (Saros 114) | 2100 Feb 24 (Saros 115) | 2129 Feb 04 (Saros 116) | |||
| 2158 Jan 14 (Saros 117) | 2186 Dec 26 (Saros 118) | ||||
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 partial solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 117.
| May 30, 1946 | June 10, 1964 |
|---|---|
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