July 1954 lunar eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, July 16, 1954,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 0.4054. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.6 days after apogee (on July 9, 1954, at 9:25 UTC) and 7.8 days before perigee (on July 23, 1954, at 19:30 UTC).^[2]

July 1954 lunar eclipse

Partial eclipse
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	July 16, 1954
Gamma	0.7877
Magnitude	0.4054
Saros cycle	138 (26 of 83)
Partiality	140 minutes, 55 seconds
Penumbral	301 minutes, 37 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 21:49:33 U1 23:09:58 Greatest 0:20:20 U4 1:30:53 P4 2:51:10
← January 1954 January 1955 →

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over eastern South America, Africa, Europe, and Antarctica, seen rising over northwestern South America and much of central and eastern North America and setting over eastern Europe, the western half of Asia, and western Australia.^[3]

Eclipse details

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

July 16, 1954 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	1.42024
Umbral Magnitude	0.40537
Gamma	0.78767
Sun Right Ascension	07h39m05.3s
Sun Declination	+21°29'36.6"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'44.2"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	19h38m14.9s
Moon Declination	-20°46'21.3"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'30.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°56'54.4"
ΔT	30.9 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 June–July 1954

June 30 Descending node (new moon)	July 16 Ascending node (full moon)
Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 126	Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 138

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1954

• An annular solar eclipse on January 5.
• A total lunar eclipse on January 19.
• A total solar eclipse on June 30.
• A partial lunar eclipse on July 16.
• An annular solar eclipse on December 25.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 26, 1950
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 3, 1958

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 3, 1947
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 26, 1961

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 9, 1945
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 20, 1963

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 15, 1943
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 14, 1965

Lunar Saros 138

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 4, 1936
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1972

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 4, 1925
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 25, 1983

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 14, 1867
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 16, 2041

Lunar eclipses of 1951–1955

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, 1951 and September 15, 1951 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the lunar eclipses on June 5, 1955 (penumbral) and November 29, 1955 (partial) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1951 to 1955
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
103	1951 Feb 21	Penumbral	−		108	1951 Aug 17	Penumbral	−1.4828
113	1952 Feb 11	Partial	0.9416		118	1952 Aug 05	Partial	−0.7384
123	1953 Jan 29	Total	0.2606		128	1953 Jul 26	Total	−0.0071
133	1954 Jan 19	Total	−0.4357		138	1954 Jul 16	Partial	0.7877
143	1955 Jan 08	Penumbral	−1.0907

Saros 138

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 138, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 82 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on October 15, 1521. It contains partial eclipses from June 24, 1918 through August 28, 2026; total eclipses from September 7, 2044 through June 8, 2495; and a second set of partial eclipses from June 19, 2513 through August 13, 2603. The series ends at member 82 as a penumbral eclipse on March 30, 2982.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 48 at 105 minutes, 24 seconds on March 24, 2369. 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 2369 Mar 24, lasting 105 minutes, 24 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1521 Oct 15	1918 Jun 24	2044 Sep 07	2116 Oct 21
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2441 May 06	2495 Jun 08	2603 Aug 13	2982 Mar 30

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 17–38 occur between 1801 and 2200:
17		18		19
1810 Apr 19		1828 Apr 29		1846 May 11
20		21		22
1864 May 21		1882 Jun 01		1900 Jun 13
23		24		25
1918 Jun 24		1936 Jul 04		1954 Jul 16
26		27		28
1972 Jul 26		1990 Aug 06		2008 Aug 16
29		30		31
2026 Aug 28		2044 Sep 07		2062 Sep 18
32		33		34
2080 Sep 29		2098 Oct 10		2116 Oct 21
35		36		37
2134 Nov 02		2152 Nov 12		2170 Nov 23
38
2188 Dec 04

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 2183
1801 Sep 22 (Saros 124)		1812 Aug 22 (Saros 125)		1823 Jul 23 (Saros 126)		1834 Jun 21 (Saros 127)		1845 May 21 (Saros 128)
1856 Apr 20 (Saros 129)		1867 Mar 20 (Saros 130)		1878 Feb 17 (Saros 131)		1889 Jan 17 (Saros 132)		1899 Dec 17 (Saros 133)
1910 Nov 17 (Saros 134)		1921 Oct 16 (Saros 135)		1932 Sep 14 (Saros 136)		1943 Aug 15 (Saros 137)		1954 Jul 16 (Saros 138)
1965 Jun 14 (Saros 139)		1976 May 13 (Saros 140)		1987 Apr 14 (Saros 141)		1998 Mar 13 (Saros 142)		2009 Feb 09 (Saros 143)
2020 Jan 10 (Saros 144)		2030 Dec 09 (Saros 145)		2041 Nov 08 (Saros 146)		2052 Oct 08 (Saros 147)		2063 Sep 07 (Saros 148)
2074 Aug 07 (Saros 149)		2085 Jul 07 (Saros 150)		2096 Jun 06 (Saros 151)		2107 May 07 (Saros 152)
				2151 Jan 02 (Saros 156)				2172 Oct 31 (Saros 158)
2183 Oct 01 (Saros 159)

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
1809 Oct 23 (Saros 133)		1838 Oct 03 (Saros 134)		1867 Sep 14 (Saros 135)
1896 Aug 23 (Saros 136)		1925 Aug 04 (Saros 137)		1954 Jul 16 (Saros 138)
1983 Jun 25 (Saros 139)		2012 Jun 04 (Saros 140)		2041 May 16 (Saros 141)
2070 Apr 25 (Saros 142)		2099 Apr 05 (Saros 143)		2128 Mar 16 (Saros 144)
2157 Feb 24 (Saros 145)		2186 Feb 04 (Saros 146)

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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 145.

July 9, 1945	July 20, 1963

See also

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