December 2001 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, December 30, 2001,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.1141. 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 3.7 days before perigee (on January 2, 2002, at 2:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

December 2001 lunar eclipse

Penumbral eclipse
Hourly motion shown right to left
Date	December 30, 2001
Gamma	1.0731
Magnitude	−0.1141
Saros cycle	144 (15 of 71)
Penumbral	243 minutes, 32 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 8:27:35 Greatest 10:29:18 P4 12:31:07
← July 2001 May 2002 →

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over northeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and North America, seen rising over much of Asia and Australia and setting over South America.^[3]

	The moon's hourly motion across the Earth's shadow in the constellation of Gemini.

Eclipse details

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

December 30, 2001 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.89477
Umbral Magnitude	−0.11407
Gamma	1.07318
Sun Right Ascension	18h38m16.3s
Sun Declination	-23°08'50.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'15.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	06h38m07.7s
Moon Declination	+24°12'18.7"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'07.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°59'10.2"
ΔT	64.3 s

Eclipse season

See also: Eclipse cycle

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 December 2001

December 14 Descending node (new moon)	December 30 Ascending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 132	Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 144

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2001

• A total lunar eclipse on January 9.
• A total solar eclipse on June 21.
• A partial lunar eclipse on July 5.
• An annular solar eclipse on December 14.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on December 30.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1998
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 17, 2005

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 18, 1994
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 9, 2009

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 24, 1992
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 4, 2011

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 30, 1991
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 28, 2012

Lunar Saros 144

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 20, 1983
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 10, 2020

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 18, 1973
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 9, 2030

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 1, 1915
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 30, 2088

Lunar eclipses of 1998–2002

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.^[5]

The penumbral lunar eclipses on March 13, 1998 and September 6, 1998 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on May 26, 2002 and November 20, 2002 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1998 to 2002
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
109	1998 Aug 08	Penumbral	1.4876		114	1999 Jan 31	Penumbral	−1.0190
119	1999 Jul 28	Partial	0.7863		124	2000 Jan 21	Total	−0.2957
129	2000 Jul 16	Total	0.0302		134	2001 Jan 09	Total	0.3720
139	2001 Jul 05	Partial	−0.7287		144	2001 Dec 30	Penumbral	1.0732
149	2002 Jun 24	Penumbral	−1.4440

Saros 144

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 144, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 29, 1749. It contains partial eclipses from March 28, 2146 through June 23, 2290; total eclipses from July 4, 2308 through January 28, 2651; and a second set of partial eclipses from February 8, 2669 through June 8, 2867. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on September 4, 3011.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 38 at 104 minutes, 53 seconds on September 7, 2416. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[6]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2416 Sep 07, lasting 104 minutes, 53 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1749 Jul 29	2146 Mar 28	2308 Jul 04	2362 Aug 06
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2488 Oct 20	2651 Jan 28	2867 Jun 08	3011 Sep 04

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 4–26 occur between 1801 and 2200:
4		5		6
1803 Sep 01		1821 Sep 11		1839 Sep 23
7		8		9
1857 Oct 03		1875 Oct 14		1893 Oct 25
10		11		12
1911 Nov 06		1929 Nov 17		1947 Nov 28
13		14		15
1965 Dec 08		1983 Dec 20		2001 Dec 30
16		17		18
2020 Jan 10		2038 Jan 21		2056 Feb 01
19		20		21
2074 Feb 11		2092 Feb 23		2110 Mar 06
22		23		24
2128 Mar 16		2146 Mar 28		2164 Apr 07
25		26
2182 Apr 18		2200 Apr 30

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 2132
1805 Jul 11 (Saros 126)		1816 Jun 10 (Saros 127)		1827 May 11 (Saros 128)		1838 Apr 10 (Saros 129)		1849 Mar 09 (Saros 130)
1860 Feb 07 (Saros 131)		1871 Jan 06 (Saros 132)		1881 Dec 05 (Saros 133)		1892 Nov 04 (Saros 134)		1903 Oct 06 (Saros 135)
1914 Sep 04 (Saros 136)		1925 Aug 04 (Saros 137)		1936 Jul 04 (Saros 138)		1947 Jun 03 (Saros 139)		1958 May 03 (Saros 140)
1969 Apr 02 (Saros 141)		1980 Mar 01 (Saros 142)		1991 Jan 30 (Saros 143)		2001 Dec 30 (Saros 144)		2012 Nov 28 (Saros 145)
2023 Oct 28 (Saros 146)		2034 Sep 28 (Saros 147)		2045 Aug 27 (Saros 148)		2056 Jul 26 (Saros 149)		2067 Jun 27 (Saros 150)
2132 Dec 22 (Saros 156)

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
1828 Apr 29 (Saros 138)		1857 Apr 09 (Saros 139)		1886 Mar 20 (Saros 140)
1915 Mar 01 (Saros 141)		1944 Feb 09 (Saros 142)		1973 Jan 18 (Saros 143)
2001 Dec 30 (Saros 144)		2030 Dec 09 (Saros 145)		2059 Nov 19 (Saros 146)
2088 Oct 30 (Saros 147)		2117 Oct 10 (Saros 148)		2146 Sep 20 (Saros 149)
2175 Aug 31 (Saros 150)

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[8] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 151.

December 24, 1992	January 4, 2011

See also

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 21st-century lunar eclipses