Penumbral lunar eclipse

There will be a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, though it will not be visible from London since the Moon will be beneath the horizon at the time.

The eclipse will last from 09:40 until 13:55, and maximum eclipse will occur at 11:48 (all times given in London time).

Like other lunar eclipses, penumbral occur whenever the Earth passes between the Moon and Sun, such that it obscures the Sun’s light and casts a shadow onto the Moon’s surface. But unlike other kinds of eclipses, they are extremely subtle events to observe.

In a penumbral eclipse the Moon passes through an outer region of the Earth’s shadow called the penumbra. In this outer part of the Earth’s shadow, an observer on the Moon would see the Sun partially obscuring the Sun’s disk, but not completely covering it. As a result the Moon’s brightness will begin to dim, as it is less strongly illuminated by the Sun, but it remains illuminated.

The geometry of a lunar eclipse. Image courtesy of F. Sogumo.

Although the Moon’s light dims considerably during a penumbral eclipse, this is only perceptable to those with very astute vision, or in carefully controlled photographs.

On this occasion 77% of the Moon’s face will pass within the Earth’s penumbra at the moment of greatest eclipse, and so a modest reduction in the Moon’s brightness may be perceptible.

Eclipses of the Moon are visible anywhere where the Moon is above the horizon at the time. Since the geometry of lunar eclipses requires that the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, the Moon can be seen above the horizon anywhere where the Sun is beneath the horizon. The map below shows where the eclipse of March 23 will be visible.

The chart below shows the Moon’s path across the sky, with the Earth’s umbra (dark gray) and penumbra (light gray) shown. The table below lists the times when each part of the eclipse will begin and end.

This eclipse is a member of Saros series 142. The exact position of the Moon at the moment of greatest eclipse is as follows:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.