January 1953 lunar eclipse - Misplaced Pages

Total lunar eclipse January 29, 1953

January 1953 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse

The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left

Date

January 29, 1953

Gamma

0.2606

Magnitude

1.3314

Saros cycle

123 (49 of 73)

Totality

84 minutes, 31 seconds

Partiality

225 minutes, 47 seconds

Penumbral

370 minutes, 57 seconds

Contacts (UTC)
P1	20:41:51
U1	21:54:24
U2	23:05:02
Greatest	23:47:18
U3	0:29:33
U4	1:40:11
P4	2:52:48

← August 1952 July 1953 →

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Thursday, January 29, 1953, with an umbral magnitude of 1.3314. It was a central lunar eclipse, in which part of the Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth'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 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. 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's shadow is smaller. Occurring about 2.5 days before apogee (on February 1, 1953, at 11:46 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over Africa, Europe, and west and central Asia, seen rising over North and South America and setting over western Australia and much of Asia.

Eclipse details

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

January 29, 1953 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	2.42906
Umbral Magnitude	1.33137
Gamma	0.26061
Sun Right Ascension	20h48m59.2s
Sun Declination	-17°47'59.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'14.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	08h49m20.8s
Moon Declination	+18°01'09.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter	14'47.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°54'16.9"
ΔT	30.3 s

Eclipse season

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1951–1955

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 March 23, 1951 and September 15, 1951 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the lunar eclipses on June 5, 1955 (penumbral) and November 29, 1955 (partial) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1951 to 1955
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
103	1951 Feb 21	Penumbral	−	108	1951 Aug 17	Penumbral	−1.4828
113	1952 Feb 11	Partial	0.9416	118	1952 Aug 05	Partial	−0.7384
123	1953 Jan 29	Total	0.2606	128	1953 Jul 26	Total	−0.0071
133	1954 Jan 19	Total	−0.4357	138	1954 Jul 16	Partial	0.7877
143	1955 Jan 08	Penumbral	−1.0907

Saros 123

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 123, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 16, 1087. It contains partial eclipses from May 2, 1520 through July 6, 1610; total eclipses from July 16, 1628 through April 4, 2061; and a second set of partial eclipses from April 16, 2079 through July 2, 2205. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on October 8, 2367.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 37 at 105 minutes, 58 seconds on September 20, 1736. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1736 Sep 20, lasting 105 minutes, 58 seconds.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1087 Aug 16	1520 May 02	1628 Jul 16	1682 Aug 18
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1953 Jan 29	2061 Apr 04	2205 Jul 02	2367 Oct 08

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 41–62 occur between 1801 and 2200:
41	42	43
1808 Nov 03	1826 Nov 14	1844 Nov 24

44	45	46
1862 Dec 06	1880 Dec 16	1898 Dec 27

47	48	49
1917 Jan 08	1935 Jan 19	1953 Jan 29

50	51	52
1971 Feb 10	1989 Feb 20	2007 Mar 03

53	54	55
2025 Mar 14	2043 Mar 25	2061 Apr 04

56	57	58
2079 Apr 16	2097 Apr 26	2115 May 08

59	60	61
2133 May 19	2151 May 30	2169 Jun 09

62
2187 Jun 20

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic 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
1804 Jan 26 (Saros 111)	1814 Dec 26 (Saros 112)	1825 Nov 25 (Saros 113)	1836 Oct 24 (Saros 114)	1847 Sep 24 (Saros 115)

1858 Aug 24 (Saros 116)	1869 Jul 23 (Saros 117)	1880 Jun 22 (Saros 118)	1891 May 23 (Saros 119)	1902 Apr 22 (Saros 120)

1913 Mar 22 (Saros 121)	1924 Feb 20 (Saros 122)	1935 Jan 19 (Saros 123)	1945 Dec 19 (Saros 124)	1956 Nov 18 (Saros 125)

1967 Oct 18 (Saros 126)	1978 Sep 16 (Saros 127)	1989 Aug 17 (Saros 128)	2000 Jul 16 (Saros 129)	2011 Jun 15 (Saros 130)

2022 May 16 (Saros 131)	2033 Apr 14 (Saros 132)	2044 Mar 13 (Saros 133)	2055 Feb 11 (Saros 134)	2066 Jan 11 (Saros 135)

2076 Dec 10 (Saros 136)	2087 Nov 10 (Saros 137)	2098 Oct 10 (Saros 138)	2109 Sep 09 (Saros 139)	2120 Aug 09 (Saros 140)

2131 Jul 10 (Saros 141)	2142 Jun 08 (Saros 142)	2153 May 08 (Saros 143)	2164 Apr 07 (Saros 144)	2175 Mar 07 (Saros 145)

2186 Feb 04 (Saros 146)	2197 Jan 04 (Saros 147)

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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 130.