en December 1946 lunar eclipse

December 1946 lunar eclipse
Total eclipse
	The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	December 8, 1946
Gamma	0.3864
Magnitude	1.1639
Saros cycle	134 (23 of 73)
Totality	57 minutes, 15 seconds
Partiality	194 minutes, 54 seconds
Penumbral	309 minutes, 29 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	15:13:16
U1	16:10:34
U2	17:19:23
Greatest	17:48:01
U3	18:16:38
U4	19:25:28
P4	20:22:45
	← June 1946 June 1947 →

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, December 8, 1946,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 1.1639. 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 only about 6.5 hours before perigee (on December 9, 1946, at 0:15 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

This lunar eclipse was the last of an almost tetrad, with the others being on June 25, 1945 (partial); December 19, 1945 (total); and June 14, 1946 (total).

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over central and eastern Europe, northeast Africa, Asia, and western Australia, seen rising over much of Africa and western Europe and setting over eastern Australia and northwestern North 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]

December 8, 1946 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	2.13370
Umbral Magnitude	1.16390
Gamma	0.38643
Sun Right Ascension	16h59m23.8s
Sun Declination	-22°42'56.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'14.4"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	04h59m03.0s
Moon Declination	+23°06'12.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'44.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°01'27.3"
ΔT	27.8 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.

Eclipse season of November–December 1946
November 23 Descending node (new moon)	December 8 Ascending node (full moon)

Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 122	Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 134

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1944–1947

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1944–1947
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
109	1944 Jul 06	Penumbral	114	1944 Dec 29	Penumbral
119	1945 Jun 25	Partial	124	1945 Dec 19	Total
129	1946 Jun 14	Total	134	1946 Dec 08	Total
139	1947 Jun 03	Partial	144	1947 Nov 28	Penumbral

Saros 134

It was part of Saros series 134.

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 141.