en April 1940 lunar eclipse

April 1940 lunar eclipse
Penumbral eclipse
	The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	April 22, 1940
Gamma	1.0741
Magnitude	−0.0945
Saros cycle	140 (21 of 80)
Penumbral	232 minutes, 31 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	2:29:43
Greatest	4:26:01
P4	6:22:14
	← March 1940 October 1940 →

A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Monday, April 22, 1940,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.0945. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth'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 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 2.7 days after perigee (on April 20, 1940, at 20:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over much of North America, South America, west Africa, and Antarctica, seen rising over northwestern North America and the central Pacific Ocean and setting over Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.^[3]

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.^[4]

April 22, 1940 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.86836
Umbral Magnitude	−0.09446
Gamma	1.07414
Sun Right Ascension	01h58m53.2s
Sun Declination	+12°08'03.3"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'54.5"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	14h00m00.5s
Moon Declination	-11°05'02.6"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'31.3"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°00'38.2"
ΔT	24.5 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse 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 a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Eclipse season of March–April 1940
March 23 Ascending node (full moon)	April 7 Descending node (new moon)	April 22 Ascending node (full moon)

Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 102	Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 128	Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 140

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1937–1940

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1937–1940
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
110	1937 May 25	Penumbral	115	1937 Nov 18	Partial
120	1938 May 14	Total	125	1938 Nov 07	Total
130	1939 May 03	Total	135	1939 Oct 28	Partial
140	1940 Apr 22	Penumbral	145	1940 Oct 16	Penumbral

Saros 140

It was part of Saros series 140.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[5] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 147.