October 1967 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, October 18, 1967,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 1.1426. 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 only about 22 hours before apogee (on October 19, 1967, at 8:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.^[2]

October 1967 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	October 18, 1967
Gamma	−0.3653
Magnitude	1.1426
Saros cycle	126 (43 of 72)
Totality	59 minutes, 45 seconds
Partiality	218 minutes, 52 seconds
Penumbral	367 minutes, 7 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 7:11:37 U1 8:25:44 U2 9:45:17 Greatest 10:15:10 U3 10:45:02 U4 12:04:35 P4 13:18:43
← April 1967 April 1968 →

This lunar eclipse was the second of a tetrad, with four total lunar eclipses in series, the others being on April 24, 1967; April 13, 1968; and October 6, 1968.

Visibility

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

Eclipse details

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

October 18, 1967 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	2.23368
Umbral Magnitude	1.14258
Gamma	−0.36529
Sun Right Ascension	13h30m10.8s
Sun Declination	-09°26'26.5"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'03.3"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	01h30m47.5s
Moon Declination	+09°08'55.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter	14'42.8"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°54'00.0"
ΔT	38.1 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 October–November 1967

October 18 Ascending node (full moon)	November 2 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 126	Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 152

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1967

• A total lunar eclipse on April 24.
• A partial solar eclipse on May 9.
• A total lunar eclipse on October 18.
• A total solar eclipse on November 2.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 30, 1963
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 6, 1971

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 5, 1960
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 29, 1974

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 12, 1958
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 23, 1976

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 18, 1956
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 16, 1978

Lunar Saros 126

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 7, 1949
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 28, 1985

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 7, 1938
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 27, 1996

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 16, 1880
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 18, 2054

Lunar eclipses of 1966–1969

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 August 27, 1969 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1966 to 1969
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
111	1966 May 04	Penumbral	1.0554		116	1966 Oct 29	Penumbral	−1.0600
121	1967 Apr 24	Total	0.2972		126	1967 Oct 18	Total	−0.3653
131	1968 Apr 13	Total	−0.4173		136	1968 Oct 06	Total	0.3605
141	1969 Apr 02	Penumbral	−1.1765		146	1969 Sep 25	Penumbral	1.0656

Metonic series

This eclipse is the third of four Metonic cycle lunar eclipses on the same date, April 23–24, each separated by 19 years:

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

Metonic lunar eclipse sets 1948–2005

Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date	Type		Saros	Date	Type
111	1948 Apr 23	Partial		116	1948 Oct 18	Penumbral
121	1967 Apr 24	Total		126	1967 Oct 18	Total
131	1986 Apr 24	Total		136	1986 Oct 17	Total
141	2005 Apr 24	Penumbral		146	2005 Oct 17	Partial

Saros 126

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 18, 1228. It contains partial eclipses from March 24, 1625 through June 9, 1751; total eclipses from June 19, 1769 through November 9, 2003; and a second set of partial eclipses from November 19, 2021 through June 5, 2346. The series ends at member 70 as a penumbral eclipse on August 19, 2472.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 36 at 106 minutes, 27 seconds on August 13, 1859. 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 1859 Aug 13, lasting 106 minutes, 27 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1228 Jul 18	1625 Mar 24	1769 Jun 19	1805 Jul 11
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1931 Sep 26	2003 Nov 09	2346 Jun 05	2472 Aug 19

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 33–54 occur between 1801 and 2200:
33		34		35
1805 Jul 11		1823 Jul 23		1841 Aug 02
36		37		38
1859 Aug 13		1877 Aug 23		1895 Sep 04
39		40		41
1913 Sep 15		1931 Sep 26		1949 Oct 07
42		43		44
1967 Oct 18		1985 Oct 28		2003 Nov 09
45		46		47
2021 Nov 19		2039 Nov 30		2057 Dec 11
48		49		50
2075 Dec 22		2094 Jan 01		2112 Jan 14
51		52		53
2130 Jan 24		2148 Feb 04		2166 Feb 15
54
2184 Feb 26

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
1804 Jan 26 (Saros 111)		1814 Dec 26 (Saros 112)		1825 Nov 25 (Saros 113)		1836 Oct 24 (Saros 114)		1847 Sep 24 (Saros 115)
1858 Aug 24 (Saros 116)		1869 Jul 23 (Saros 117)		1880 Jun 22 (Saros 118)		1891 May 23 (Saros 119)		1902 Apr 22 (Saros 120)
1913 Mar 22 (Saros 121)		1924 Feb 20 (Saros 122)		1935 Jan 19 (Saros 123)		1945 Dec 19 (Saros 124)		1956 Nov 18 (Saros 125)
1967 Oct 18 (Saros 126)		1978 Sep 16 (Saros 127)		1989 Aug 17 (Saros 128)		2000 Jul 16 (Saros 129)		2011 Jun 15 (Saros 130)
2022 May 16 (Saros 131)		2033 Apr 14 (Saros 132)		2044 Mar 13 (Saros 133)		2055 Feb 11 (Saros 134)		2066 Jan 11 (Saros 135)
2076 Dec 10 (Saros 136)		2087 Nov 10 (Saros 137)		2098 Oct 10 (Saros 138)		2109 Sep 09 (Saros 139)		2120 Aug 09 (Saros 140)
2131 Jul 10 (Saros 141)		2142 Jun 08 (Saros 142)		2153 May 08 (Saros 143)		2164 Apr 07 (Saros 144)		2175 Mar 07 (Saros 145)
2186 Feb 04 (Saros 146)		2197 Jan 04 (Saros 147)

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
1823 Jan 26 (Saros 121)		1852 Jan 07 (Saros 122)		1880 Dec 16 (Saros 123)
1909 Nov 27 (Saros 124)		1938 Nov 07 (Saros 125)		1967 Oct 18 (Saros 126)
1996 Sep 27 (Saros 127)		2025 Sep 07 (Saros 128)		2054 Aug 18 (Saros 129)
2083 Jul 29 (Saros 130)		2112 Jul 09 (Saros 131)		2141 Jun 19 (Saros 132)
2170 May 30 (Saros 133)		2199 May 10 (Saros 134)

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 133.

October 12, 1958	October 23, 1976

See also

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