en August 1944 lunar eclipse

August 1944 lunar eclipse
Penumbral eclipse
	The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	August 4, 1944
Gamma	−1.2843
Magnitude	−0.4758
Saros cycle	147 (5 of 71)
Penumbral	179 minutes, 6 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	10:56:54
Greatest	12:26:24
P4	13:56:00
	← July 1944 December 1944 →

A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Friday, August 4, 1944,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.4758. 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 1.5 days before perigee (on August 5, 1944, at 23:45 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

This eclipse was the third of four penumbral lunar eclipses in 1944, with the others occurring on February 9, July 6, and December 29.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over Australia and Antarctica, seen rising over east and south Asia and setting over western North and South America.^[3]

Eclipse details

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

August 4, 1944 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.47847
Umbral Magnitude	−0.47577
Gamma	−1.28428
Sun Right Ascension	08h57m44.4s
Sun Declination	+17°12'21.5"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'46.0"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	20h58m45.5s
Moon Declination	-18°28'52.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'31.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°00'38.5"
ΔT	26.7 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 July–August 1944
July 6 Descending node (full moon)	July 20 Ascending node (new moon)	August 4 Descending node (full moon)

Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 109	Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 135	Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 147

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1940–1944

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1940–1944
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
102	1940 Mar 23	Penumbral	107
112	1941 Mar 13	Partial	117	1941 Sep 05	Partial
122	1942 Mar 03	Total	127	1942 Aug 26	Total
132	1943 Feb 20	Partial	137	1943 Aug 15	Partial
142	1944 Feb 09	Penumbral	147	1944 Aug 04	Penumbral

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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 154.