April 1948 lunar eclipse - Misplaced Pages

Partial lunar eclipse April 23, 1948

April 1948 lunar eclipse

Partial eclipse

The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left

Date

April 23, 1948

Gamma

1.0017

Magnitude

0.0230

Saros cycle

111 (63 of 71)

Partiality

34 minutes, 21 seconds

Penumbral

257 minutes, 35 seconds

Contacts (UTC)
P1	11:29:58
U1	13:21:33
Greatest	13:38:50
U4	13:55:54
P4	15:47:34

← November 1947 October 1948 →

A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Friday, April 23, 1948, with an umbral magnitude of 0.0230. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in the Earth's penumbra. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring about 3.5 days after perigee (on April 20, 1948, at 2:05 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over east and northeast Asia, Australia, and Antarctica, seen rising over east Africa and the western half of Asia and setting over western North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

April 23, 1948 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	1.01720
Umbral Magnitude	0.02300
Gamma	1.00165
Sun Right Ascension	02h04m17.6s
Sun Declination	+12°37'06.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'54.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	14h06m01.0s
Moon Declination	-11°44'01.4"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'59.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°58'42.0"
ΔT	28.4 s

Eclipse season

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1948–1951

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The penumbral lunar eclipses on February 21, 1951 and August 17, 1951 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1948 to 1951
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
111	1948 Apr 23	Partial	1.0017	116	1948 Oct 18	Penumbral	−1.0245
121	1949 Apr 13	Total	0.2474	126	1949 Oct 07	Total	−0.3219
131	1950 Apr 02	Total	−0.4599	136	1950 Sep 26	Total	0.4101
141	1951 Mar 23	Penumbral	−1.2099	146	1951 Sep 15	Penumbral	1.1187

Saros 111

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 111, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on June 10, 830 AD. It contains partial eclipses from September 14, 992 AD through April 8, 1335; total eclipses from April 19, 1353 through August 4, 1533; and a second set of partial eclipses from August 16, 1551 through April 23, 1948. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on July 19, 2092.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 35 at 106 minutes, 14 seconds on June 12, 1443. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1443 Jun 12, lasting 106 minutes, 14 seconds.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	830 Jun 10	992 Sep 14	1353 Apr 19	1389 May 10
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1497 Jul 14	1533 Aug 04	1948 Apr 23	2092 Jul 19

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

Series members 55–71 occur between 1801 and 2092:
55	56	57
1804 Jan 26	1822 Feb 06	1840 Feb 17

58	59	60
1858 Feb 27	1876 Mar 10	1894 Mar 21

61	62	63
1912 Apr 01	1930 Apr 13	1948 Apr 23

64	65	66
1966 May 04	1984 May 15	2002 May 26

67	68	69
2020 Jun 05	2038 Jun 17	2056 Jun 27

70	71
2074 Jul 08	2092 Jul 19

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 118.