July 2018 lunar eclipse

July 2018 lunar eclipse
Total eclipse
	Oria, Italy, 21:09 UTC, end of totality
Date	27 July 2018
Gamma	+0.1168
Magnitude	1.6087
Saros cycle	129 (38 of 71)
Totality	102 minutes, 57 seconds
Partiality	234 minutes, 32 seconds
Penumbral	373 minutes, 48 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	17:14:49
U1	18:24:27
U2	19:30:15
Greatest	20:21:44
U3	21:13:12
U4	22:19:00
P4	23:28:39
	← January 2018 January 2019 →

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node on Friday, 27 July 2018. The Moon passed through the center of Earth's shadow in what was the first central lunar eclipse since 15 June 2011. It was also the second total lunar eclipse in 2018, after the one on 31 January.

The eclipse occurred when the Moon was near its maximum distance from Earth, which caused the Moon to appear smaller than normal (a phenomenon sometimes called a micromoon),^[1]^[2] and to travel at its slowest speed in its orbit around Earth.^[3] This was the longest total lunar eclipse that will occur in the 21st century.^[3] Totality lasted approximately one hour and 43 minutes,^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] a period "just short of the theoretical limit of a lunar eclipse (one hour and 47 minutes)".^[8] The Moon remained at least partially in Earth's shadow for four hours.^[8]

This lunar eclipse coincided with Mars being nearly as close as possible to Earth, a concurrence that happens once every 25,000 years.^[6]

Background

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within Earth's umbra (shadow). As the eclipse begins, Earth's shadow first darkens the Moon slightly. Then, the Earth's shadow begins to cover part of the Moon, typically turning it a dark red-brown color (the color can vary based on atmospheric conditions). The Moon appears to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering (the same effect that causes sunsets to appear reddish and the daytime sky to appear blue) and the refraction of that light by Earth's atmosphere into its umbra.^[9]

The Moon's brightness is exaggerated within the umbral shadow.^[9] The southern portion of the Moon was closest to the center of the shadow, making it the darkest, and most red in appearance.^{[citation needed]}

Visibility

The lunar eclipse was completely visible over Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, Southern Asia and Central Asia, seen rising over South America, Western Africa, and Europe, and setting over Eastern Asia, and Australia.^[10]

View of earth from moon at greatest eclipse

Map

Observations

Animation of the eclipse from Athens, Greece
Video of the eclipse from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Nanjing, China, 18:25 UTC
Asunción, Paraguay 19:10 UTC
Rethymnon, Greece 19:14 UTC
Johannesburg, South Africa, 19:16 UTC
Guangzhou, China, 19:20 UTC
Limassol, Cyprus, 19:27 UTC
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 19:32 UTC
Jerusalem, Israel, 19:33 UTC
Eclipse with Mars, Fukuoka, Japan, 19:46 UTC
Cracow, Poland, 20:05 UTC
Chelsea, Victoria, Australia, 20:07 UTC
Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, 20:47 UTC
Huittinen, Finland, 21:05 UTC
Graz, Austria, 21:12 UTC
Toulouse, France, 21:17 UTC
Berlin, Germany, 21:19 UTC
Torino, Italy, 21:19 UTC
Hamburg, Germany, 21:23 UTC
Brastad, Sweden, 21:24 UTC
León, Spain, 21:27 UTC

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 2018

Lunar year series

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.^[11]

The penumbral lunar eclipses on March 23, 2016 and September 16, 2016 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on June 5, 2020 and November 30, 2020 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2016 to 2020
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
109	2016 Aug 18	Penumbral	1.5641	114	2017 Feb 11	Penumbral	−1.0255
119	2017 Aug 07	Partial	0.8669	124	2018 Jan 31	Total	−0.3014
129	2018 Jul 27	Total	0.1168	134	2019 Jan 21	Total	0.3684
139	2019 Jul 16	Partial	−0.6430	144	2020 Jan 10	Penumbral	1.0727
149	2020 Jul 05	Penumbral	−1.3639

Saros series

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 129, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on June 10, 1351. It contains partial eclipses from September 26, 1531 through May 11, 1892; total eclipses from May 24, 1910 through September 8, 2090; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 20, 2108 through April 26, 2469. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on July 24, 2613.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 37 at 106 minutes, 24 seconds on July 16, 2000. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[12]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 2000 Jul 16, lasting 106 minutes, 24 seconds.^[13]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1351 Jun 10	1531 Sep 26	1910 May 24	1946 Jun 14
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2036 Aug 07	2090 Sep 08	2469 Apr 26	2613 Jul 24

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 26–48 occur between 1801 and 2200:
26	27	28
1802 Mar 19	1820 Mar 29	1838 Apr 10

29	30	31
1856 Apr 20	1874 May 01	1892 May 11

32	33	34
1910 May 24	1928 Jun 03	1946 Jun 14

35	36	37
1964 Jun 25	1982 Jul 06	2000 Jul 16

38	39	40
2018 Jul 27	2036 Aug 07	2054 Aug 18

41	42	43
2072 Aug 28	2090 Sep 08	2108 Sep 20

44	45	46
2126 Oct 01	2144 Oct 11	2162 Oct 23

47	48
2180 Nov 02	2198 Nov 13

This is the 38th member of Lunar Saros 129. The previous event was the July 2000 lunar eclipse. The next event is the August 2036 lunar eclipse. Lunar Saros 129 contains 11 total lunar eclipses between 1910 and 2090. Solar Saros 136 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[14] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 136.

July 22, 2009	August 2, 2027