February 2017 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Saturday, February 11, 2017,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.0342. It was not quite a total penumbral lunar eclipse. 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 4.6 days before perigee (on February 6, 2017, at 9:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

February 2017 lunar eclipse

Penumbral eclipse
Penumbral eclipse as viewed from Rabka-Zdrój, Poland, 0:51 UTC
Date	February 11, 2017
Gamma	−1.0254
Magnitude	−0.0342
Saros cycle	114 (59 of 71)
Penumbral	259 minutes, 10 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 22:34:16 Greatest 0:43:53 P4 2:53:26
← September 2016 August 2017 →

This eclipse occurred the same day as comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková made a close approach to Earth (0.08318 AU). It also occurred on the Lantern Festival, the first eclipse to do so since February 9, 2009.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over northeastern North America, eastern South America, Europe, Africa, and west Asia, seen rising over much of North America and western South America and setting over south and east Asia.^[3]

	Hourly motion shown right to left
Visibility map

Gallery

• 
  Popayán, Colombia, 23:43 UTC (10 February)
• 
  Kissimmee, Florida, 0:00 UTC
• 
  Tampa, Florida, 0:11 UTC
• 
  Time lapse images from Melbourne, Florida
• 
  Bracciano, Italy, 0:29 UTC
• 
  Macon, Georgia, 0:38 UTC
• 
  Naperville, Illinois, 1:23 UTC
• 
  Innsbruck, Austria, ~2:00 UTC

Eclipse details

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

February 11, 2017 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.98956
Umbral Magnitude	−0.03421
Gamma	−1.02548
Sun Right Ascension	21h39m19.2s
Sun Declination	-14°01'07.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'12.3"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	09h38m22.6s
Moon Declination	+13°03'10.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'49.8"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°58'05.6"
ΔT	68.3 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 February 2017

February 11 Ascending node (full moon)	February 26 Descending node (new moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 114	Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 140

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2017

• A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 11.
• An annular solar eclipse on February 26.
• A partial lunar eclipse on August 7.
• A total solar eclipse on August 21.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 25, 2013
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 30, 2020

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 31, 2009
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 25, 2024

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 7, 2008
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 17, 2026

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 14, 2006
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 12, 2028

Lunar Saros 114

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 31, 1999
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 22, 2035

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 1988
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 22, 2046

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 13, 1930
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 13, 2103

Lunar eclipses of 2016–2020

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 23, 2016 and September 16, 2016 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on June 5, 2020 and November 30, 2020 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2016 to 2020
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
109	2016 Aug 18	Penumbral	1.5641		114	2017 Feb 11	Penumbral	−1.0255
119	2017 Aug 07	Partial	0.8669		124	2018 Jan 31	Total	−0.3014
129	2018 Jul 27	Total	0.1168		134	2019 Jan 21	Total	0.3684
139	2019 Jul 16	Partial	−0.6430		144	2020 Jan 10	Penumbral	1.0727
149	2020 Jul 05	Penumbral	−1.3639

Saros 114

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 114, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 13, 971 AD. It contains partial eclipses from August 7, 1115 through February 18, 1440; total eclipses from February 28, 1458 through July 17, 1674; and a second set of partial eclipses from July 28, 1692 through November 26, 1890. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 22, 2233.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 35 at 106 minutes, 5 seconds on May 24, 1584. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[6]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1584 May 24, lasting 106 minutes, 5 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	971 May 13	1115 Aug 07	1458 Feb 28	1530 Apr 12
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1638 Jun 26	1674 Jul 17	1890 Nov 26	2233 Jun 22

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 48–69 occur between 1801 and 2200:
48		49		50
1818 Oct 14		1836 Oct 24		1854 Nov 04
51		52		53
1872 Nov 15		1890 Nov 26		1908 Dec 07
54		55		56
1926 Dec 19		1944 Dec 29		1963 Jan 09
57		58		59
1981 Jan 20		1999 Jan 31		2017 Feb 11
60		61		62
2035 Feb 22		2053 Mar 04		2071 Mar 16
63		64		65
2089 Mar 26		2107 Apr 07		2125 Apr 18
66		67		68
2143 Apr 29		2161 May 09		2179 May 21
69
2197 May 31

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 1886 and 2200
1886 Feb 18 (Saros 102)		1897 Jan 18 (Saros 103)
		1951 Aug 17 (Saros 108)		1962 Jul 17 (Saros 109)		1973 Jun 15 (Saros 110)		1984 May 15 (Saros 111)
1995 Apr 15 (Saros 112)		2006 Mar 14 (Saros 113)		2017 Feb 11 (Saros 114)		2028 Jan 12 (Saros 115)		2038 Dec 11 (Saros 116)
2049 Nov 09 (Saros 117)		2060 Oct 09 (Saros 118)		2071 Sep 09 (Saros 119)		2082 Aug 08 (Saros 120)		2093 Jul 08 (Saros 121)
2104 Jun 08 (Saros 122)		2115 May 08 (Saros 123)		2126 Apr 07 (Saros 124)		2137 Mar 07 (Saros 125)		2148 Feb 04 (Saros 126)
2159 Jan 04 (Saros 127)		2169 Dec 04 (Saros 128)		2180 Nov 02 (Saros 129)		2191 Oct 02 (Saros 130)

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
1814 Jul 02 (Saros 107)		1843 Jun 12 (Saros 108)		1872 May 22 (Saros 109)
1901 May 03 (Saros 110)		1930 Apr 13 (Saros 111)		1959 Mar 24 (Saros 112)
1988 Mar 03 (Saros 113)		2017 Feb 11 (Saros 114)		2046 Jan 22 (Saros 115)
2075 Jan 02 (Saros 116)		2103 Dec 13 (Saros 117)		2132 Nov 23 (Saros 118)
2161 Nov 03 (Saros 119)		2190 Oct 13 (Saros 120)

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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 121.

February 7, 2008	February 17, 2026

See also

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