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May 1956 lunar eclipse
Partial lunar eclipse May 24, 1956 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Thursday, May 24, 1956,[1] with an umbral magnitude of 0.9647. 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. Occurring about 4.3 days before apogee (on May 28, 1956, at 22:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
This lunar eclipse was the first of an almost tetrad, with the others being on November 18, 1956 (total); May 13, 1957 (total); and November 7, 1957 (total).
This was the first eclipse of the last partial set in Lunar Saros 120.
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Visibility
The eclipse was completely visible over east Asia, Australia, and Antarctica, seen rising over central and east Africa, eastern Europe, and the western half of Asia and setting over the eastern Pacific Ocean.[3]
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Eclipse details
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[4]
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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.
Related eclipses
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Eclipses in 1956
- A partial lunar eclipse on May 24.
- A total solar eclipse on June 8.
- A total lunar eclipse on November 18.
- A partial solar eclipse on December 2.
Metonic
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 5, 1952
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1960
Tzolkinex
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 13, 1949
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 6, 1963
Half-Saros
- Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 20, 1947
- Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 30, 1965
Tritos
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 25, 1945
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 24, 1967
Lunar Saros 120
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 14, 1938
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 4, 1974
Inex
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 15, 1927
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 4, 1985
Triad
- Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 23, 1869
- Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 25, 2043
Lunar eclipses of 1955–1958
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 eclipse on January 8, 1955 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse on April 4, 1958 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
Saros 120
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 120, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 83 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on October 16, 1000. It contains partial eclipses from May 31, 1379 through August 4, 1487; total eclipses from August 14, 1505 through May 14, 1938; and a second set of partial eclipses from May 24, 1956 through July 28, 2064. The series ends at member 83 as a penumbral eclipse on April 7, 2479.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 43 at 104 minutes, 55 seconds on January 24, 1758. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.[6]
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.
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.
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.
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 127.
| May 20, 1947 | May 30, 1965 |
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Notes
External links
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