January 2000 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, January 21, 2000,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 1.3246. 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 about 1.5 days after perigee (on January 19, 2000, at 17:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

January 2000 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse
Partial from Buenos Aires, 3:20 UTC
Date	January 21, 2000
Gamma	−0.2957
Magnitude	1.3246
Saros cycle	124 (48 of 74)
Totality	76 minutes, 59 seconds
Partiality	203 minutes, 19 seconds
Penumbral	318 minutes, 12 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 02:04:26 U1 03:01:50 U2 04:05:01 Greatest 04:43:31 U3 05:22:00 U4 06:25:09 P4 07:22:38
← July 1999 July 2000 →

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over most of North America, South America, and western Europe, seen rising over the Pacific Ocean and setting over Africa, Europe, and west Asia.^[3]

	Hourly motion shown right to left

Eclipse details

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

January 21, 2000 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	2.30601
Umbral Magnitude	1.32459
Gamma	−0.29571
Sun Right Ascension	20h10m32.9s
Sun Declination	-20°03'20.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'15.2"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	08h10m24.0s
Moon Declination	+19°45'29.3"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'33.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°00'46.8"
ΔT	63.8 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 January–February 2000

January 21 Ascending node (full moon)	February 5 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 124	Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 150

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2000

• A total lunar eclipse on January 21.
• A partial solar eclipse on February 5.
• A partial solar eclipse on July 1.
• A total lunar eclipse on July 16.
• A partial solar eclipse on July 31.
• A partial solar eclipse on December 25.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 4, 1996
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 9, 2003

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 9, 1992
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 2007

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 15, 1991
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 26, 2009

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 20, 1989
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010

Lunar Saros 124

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 9, 1982
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 10, 1971
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 31, 2028

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 22, 1913
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 20, 2086

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 124

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 124, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 17, 1152. It contains partial eclipses from March 21, 1513 through June 15, 1639; total eclipses from June 25, 1657 through April 18, 2144; and a second set of partial eclipses from April 29, 2162 through July 14, 2288. The series ends at member 73 as a penumbral eclipse on October 21, 2450.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 39 at 101 minutes, 27 seconds on August 30, 1765. 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 1765 Aug 30, lasting 101 minutes, 27 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1152 Aug 17	1513 Mar 21	1657 Jun 25	1711 Jul 29
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1909 Nov 27	2144 Apr 18	2288 Jul 14	2450 Oct 21

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 37–59 occur between 1801 and 2200:
37		38		39
1801 Sep 22		1819 Oct 03		1837 Oct 13
40		41		42
1855 Oct 25		1873 Nov 04		1891 Nov 16
43		44		45
1909 Nov 27		1927 Dec 08		1945 Dec 19
46		47		48
1963 Dec 30		1982 Jan 09		2000 Jan 21
49		50		51
2018 Jan 31		2036 Feb 11		2054 Feb 22
52		53		54
2072 Mar 04		2090 Mar 15		2108 Mar 27
55		56		57
2126 Apr 07		2144 Apr 18		2162 Apr 29
58		59
2180 May 09		2198 May 20

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 2200
1803 Aug 03 (Saros 106)		1814 Jul 02 (Saros 107)		1825 Jun 01 (Saros 108)		1836 May 01 (Saros 109)		1847 Mar 31 (Saros 110)
1858 Feb 27 (Saros 111)		1869 Jan 28 (Saros 112)		1879 Dec 28 (Saros 113)		1890 Nov 26 (Saros 114)		1901 Oct 27 (Saros 115)
1912 Sep 26 (Saros 116)		1923 Aug 26 (Saros 117)		1934 Jul 26 (Saros 118)		1945 Jun 25 (Saros 119)		1956 May 24 (Saros 120)
1967 Apr 24 (Saros 121)		1978 Mar 24 (Saros 122)		1989 Feb 20 (Saros 123)		2000 Jan 21 (Saros 124)		2010 Dec 21 (Saros 125)
2021 Nov 19 (Saros 126)		2032 Oct 18 (Saros 127)		2043 Sep 19 (Saros 128)		2054 Aug 18 (Saros 129)		2065 Jul 17 (Saros 130)
2076 Jun 17 (Saros 131)		2087 May 17 (Saros 132)		2098 Apr 15 (Saros 133)		2109 Mar 17 (Saros 134)		2120 Feb 14 (Saros 135)
2131 Jan 13 (Saros 136)		2141 Dec 13 (Saros 137)		2152 Nov 12 (Saros 138)		2163 Oct 12 (Saros 139)		2174 Sep 11 (Saros 140)
2185 Aug 11 (Saros 141)		2196 Jul 10 (Saros 142)

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
1826 May 21 (Saros 118)		1855 May 02 (Saros 119)		1884 Apr 10 (Saros 120)
1913 Mar 22 (Saros 121)		1942 Mar 03 (Saros 122)		1971 Feb 10 (Saros 123)
2000 Jan 21 (Saros 124)		2028 Dec 31 (Saros 125)		2057 Dec 11 (Saros 126)
2086 Nov 20 (Saros 127)		2115 Nov 02 (Saros 128)		2144 Oct 11 (Saros 129)
2173 Sep 21 (Saros 130)

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 131.

January 15, 1991	January 26, 2009

See also

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses