Lunar Eclipses
Fifteen Millennium Catalog
BC 5000 - AD 10000
Lunar eclipses during 21st century
The orbit of the Moon intersects the orbital plane of the Earth (the ecliptic) in two points known as nodes. If the orbits of Earth and Moon were coplanar, Moon would be exactly in front of the Sun at each New Moon and in exactly the opposite direction at each Full Moon, thus producing a solar and a lunar eclipse during each revolution around Earth (lunation). (Un)fortunately the two orbital planes are inclined to each other by about 5 degrees, so only on rare occasions when Moon is sufficiently close to one of it's nodes during either New or Full moon an eclipse occurs.
Depending on the relative positions of Sun, Earth and Moon near each Full Moon a lunar eclipse may or may not occur. There are three main types of lunar eclipses:
- Penumbral - The Moon passes through Earth's penumbral shadow, completely missing the umbra.
- Partial - A portion of the Moon passes through Earth's umbral shadow.
- Total - The entire Moon passes through Earth's umbral shadow.
Total eclipses can be further categorized as either:
- Central - Some portion of the Moon passes trough the axis of Earth's umbral shadow.
- Non-Central - No portion of the Moon passes trough the axis of Earth's umbral shadow.
Penumbral eclipses can be further categorized as either:
- Total - The entire Moon passes trough Earth penumbral shadow.
- Partial - Only a portion of the Moon passes trough Earth's penumbral shadow.
Lunar eclipses do not occur randomly distributed in time. When an eclipse occurs, probably there will be another lunar eclipse 223 lunations (synodic months) after it. The periodicity and recurrence of lunar eclipses is governed by the saros cycle.
When four consecutive lunar eclipses are all total eclipses, the groups is known as tetrad.
Lunar Eclipses: BC 5000 - AD 10000
During the fifteen millennium interval Earth experiences 36,116 lunar eclipses. Their distribution by type is listed below.
| Eclipse type | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| All | 36,116 | 100.00% |
| Penumbral | 13,069 | 36.19% |
| Partial | 12,518 | 34.66% |
| Total | 10,529 | 29.15% |
The distribution of the 10,529 total lunar eclipses as central and non-central:
| Eclipse type | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| All | 10,529 | 100.00% |
| Central | 6,154 | 58.45% |
| Non-Central | 4,375 | 41.55% |
The distribution of the 13,069 penumbral lunar eclipses as total and partial:
| Eclipse type | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| All | 13,069 | 100.00% |
| Total | 403 | 3.08% |
| Parial | 12,666 | 96.92% |
There are at least 2 and at most 5 lunar eclipses during each calendar year. The distribution of number of lunar eclipses per calendar year is listed below.
| Eclipses | Years | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 10,348 | 68.99% |
| 3 | 3,276 | 21.84% |
| 4 | 1,288 | 8.59% |
| 5 | 88 | 0.59% |
The time interval between any two consecutive lunar eclipses can be either 1, 5 or 6 lunations.
| Lunations | Eclipses | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4,504 | 12.47% |
| 5 | 8,650 | 23.95% |
| 6 | 22,961 | 63.58% |
Extremal lunar eclipses of the fifteen millennium interval are listed below.
Longest Total Lunar Eclipse: BC 4063-May-07 Duration = 106.8m
Shortest Total Lunar Eclipse: AD 3600-Feb-12 Duration = 1.7m
Longest Partial Lunar Eclipse: AD 9219-Apr-02 Duration = 210.7m
Shortest Partial Lunar Eclipse: AD 6835-May-01 Duration = 3.6m
Longest Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: AD 3059-Feb-19 Duration = 296.9m
Shortest Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: BC 4513-Feb-03 Duration = 1.2m
Largest Total Lunar Eclipse: BC 2714-May-03 Umb. Mag. = 1.8881
Smallest Total Lunar Eclipse: BC 248-Oct-03 Umb. Mag. = 1.0001
Largest Partial Lunar Eclipse: AD 8712-Jun-22 Umb. Mag. = 0.9999
Smallest Partial Lunar Eclipse: BC 2008-Nov-20 Umb. Mag. = 0.0002
Largest Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: AD 3059-Feb-19 Pen. Mag. = 1.1028
Smallest Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: BC 4513-Feb-03 Pen. Mag. = 0.0000
Due to the large amount of eclipses, Fifteen Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses has been split into 150 century catalogs.
Dedicated web pages
- Total Lunar Eclipse on 2000 July 16
- Partial Lunar Eclipse on 2010 June 26
- Total Lunar Eclipse on 2010 December 21
- Total Lunar Eclipse on 2011 June 15
- Total Lunar Eclipse on 2011 December 10
Acknowledgements
Circumstances of lunar eclipses during the fifteen millennium interval were computed by output generated by numerical integration software SOLEX with the use of most recent JPL DE421 ephemerides and a value of 25.858 arcsec per century squared for the lunar tidal acceleration. Please note: circumstances might not be accurate to their last significant digit.
Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows were computed using Danjon's method, and the following radii were used:
Sun = 696,000.000 km.
Earth + atmosphere = 6,442.436 km.
Moon = 1,736.646 km.
Eclipses umbral and penumbral magnitudes are typically larger when compared to other sources due to the use of Moon's polar radius in their computation.