| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | November 7, 1938 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 0.2739 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.3525 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 125 (44 of 72) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 81 minutes, 26 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 210 minutes, 11 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 331 minutes, 28 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
A totallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit on Monday, November 7, 1938,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of 1.3525. 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 3.2 days beforeperigee (on November 11, 1938, at 3:25 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
This lunar eclipse was the second of analmost tetrad, with the others being onMay 14, 1938 (total);May 3, 1939 (total); andOctober 28, 1939 (partial).
The eclipse was completely visible overAfrica,Europe, andwest andcentral Asia, seen rising overNorth andSouth America and setting overeast Asia and westernAustralia.[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 | 2.35850 |
| Umbral Magnitude | 1.35251 |
| Gamma | 0.27386 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 14h49m34.6s |
| Sun Declination | -16°17'56.2" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'08.6" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 02h49m21.3s |
| Moon Declination | +16°33'44.7" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'02.9" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°58'53.8" |
| ΔT | 24.1 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.
| November 7 Descending node (full moon) | November 21 Ascending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 125 | Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 151 |
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 onMarch 23, 1940 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 1937 to 1940 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 110 | 1937 May 25 | Penumbral | −1.1582 | 115 | 1937 Nov 18 | Partial | 0.9421 | |
| 120 | 1938 May 14 | Total | −0.3994 | 125 | 1938 Nov 07 | Total | 0.2739 | |
| 130 | 1939 May 03 | Total | 0.3693 | 135 | 1939 Oct 28 | Partial | −0.4581 | |
| 140 | 1940 Apr 22 | Penumbral | 1.0741 | 145 | 1940 Oct 16 | Penumbral | −1.1925 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 125, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 17, 1163. It contains partial eclipses from January 17, 1470 through June 6, 1686; total eclipses from June 17, 1704 through March 19, 2155; and a second set of partial eclipses from March 29, 2173 through June 25, 2317. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on September 9, 2443.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 37 at 100 minutes, 23 seconds on August 22, 1812. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit.[6]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on1812 Aug 22, lasting 100 minutes, 23 seconds.[7] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 1163 Jul 17 | 1470 Jan 17 | 1704 Jun 17 | 1758 Jul 20 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
1920 Oct 27 | 2155 Mar 19 | 2317 Jun 25 | 2443 Sep 09 | |
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 37–58 occur between 1801 and 2200: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 38 | 39 | |||
| 1812 Aug 22 | 1830 Sep 02 | 1848 Sep 13 | |||
| 40 | 41 | 42 | |||
| 1866 Sep 24 | 1884 Oct 04 | 1902 Oct 17 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 43 | 44 | 45 | |||
| 1920 Oct 27 | 1938 Nov 07 | 1956 Nov 18 | |||
|  | | |  |  |
| 46 | 47 | 48 | |||
| 1974 Nov 29 | 1992 Dec 09 | 2010 Dec 21 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 49 | 50 | 51 | |||
| 2028 Dec 31 | 2047 Jan 12 | 2065 Jan 22 | |||
 |  |  |  | ||
| 52 | 53 | 54 | |||
| 2083 Feb 02 | 2101 Feb 14 | 2119 Feb 25 | |||
| 55 | 56 | 57 | |||
| 2137 Mar 07 | 2155 Mar 19 | 2173 Mar 29 | |||
| 58 | |||||
| 2191 Apr 09 | |||||
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 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1807 Nov 15 (Saros 113) | 1818 Oct 14 (Saros 114) | 1829 Sep 13 (Saros 115) | 1840 Aug 13 (Saros 116) | 1851 Jul 13 (Saros 117) | |||||
| 1862 Jun 12 (Saros 118) | 1873 May 12 (Saros 119) | 1884 Apr 10 (Saros 120) | 1895 Mar 11 (Saros 121) | 1906 Feb 09 (Saros 122) | |||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1917 Jan 08 (Saros 123) | 1927 Dec 08 (Saros 124) | 1938 Nov 07 (Saros 125) | 1949 Oct 07 (Saros 126) | 1960 Sep 05 (Saros 127) | |||||
 |  |  |  | | |  |  |  |  |
| 1971 Aug 06 (Saros 128) | 1982 Jul 06 (Saros 129) | 1993 Jun 04 (Saros 130) | 2004 May 04 (Saros 131) | 2015 Apr 04 (Saros 132) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2026 Mar 03 (Saros 133) | 2037 Jan 31 (Saros 134) | 2048 Jan 01 (Saros 135) | 2058 Nov 30 (Saros 136) | 2069 Oct 30 (Saros 137) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2080 Sep 29 (Saros 138) | 2091 Aug 29 (Saros 139) | 2102 Jul 30 (Saros 140) | 2113 Jun 29 (Saros 141) | 2124 May 28 (Saros 142) | |||||
| 2135 Apr 28 (Saros 143) | 2146 Mar 28 (Saros 144) | 2157 Feb 24 (Saros 145) | 2168 Jan 24 (Saros 146) | 2178 Dec 24 (Saros 147) | |||||
| 2189 Nov 22 (Saros 148) | 2200 Oct 23 (Saros 149) | ||||||||
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1823 Jan 26 (Saros 121) | 1852 Jan 07 (Saros 122) | 1880 Dec 16 (Saros 123) | |||
| 1909 Nov 27 (Saros 124) | 1938 Nov 07 (Saros 125) | 1967 Oct 18 (Saros 126) | |||
 |  | | |  |  |
| 1996 Sep 27 (Saros 127) | 2025 Sep 07 (Saros 128) | 2054 Aug 18 (Saros 129) | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2083 Jul 29 (Saros 130) | 2112 Jul 09 (Saros 131) | 2141 Jun 19 (Saros 132) | |||
 |  | ||||
| 2170 May 30 (Saros 133) | 2199 May 10 (Saros 134) | ||||
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 annular solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 132.
| November 1, 1929 | November 12, 1947 |
|---|---|
 |  |
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