July 1972 lunar eclipse

July 1972 lunar eclipse
Partial eclipse
Date	26 July 1972
Gamma	0.71167
Magnitude	0.54271
Saros cycle	138 (27 of 83)
Partiality	160 minutes, 9.6 seconds
Penumbral	312 minutes, 32.3 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	04:39:21.9
U1	05:55:37.5
Greatest	07:15:38.4
U4	08:35:47.1
P4	09:51:54.2

A partial lunar eclipse occurred on Tuesday, July 25, 1972 and Wednesday, July 26, 1972, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1972 with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 0.54271. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the three celestial bodies do not form a straight line in space. When that happens, a small part of the Moon's surface is covered by the darkest, central part of the Earth's shadow, called the umbra. The rest of the Moon is covered by the outer part of the Earth's shadow called the penumbra.[1] The moon's apparent diameter was 3.2 arcseconds smaller than the January 30, 1972 lunar eclipse.

Visibility

The partial eclipse was visible in Australia, Pacific, Americas, western Africa, seen rising over eastern Australia on the evening on Wednesday, July 26, 1972 (Tuesday, July 25, 1972 in west of International Date Line) and setting over Atlantic on morning of Wednesday, July 26, 1972.

Relation to other lunar eclipses

Eclipses in 1972

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1969–1973
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
108	1969 Aug 27	Penumbral	−1.54066	113	1970 Feb 21	Partial	0.96198
118	1970 Aug 17	Partial	−0.80534	123	1971 Feb 10	Total	0.27413
128	1971 Aug 6	Total	−0.07944	133	1972 Jan 30	Total	−0.42729
138	1972 Jul 26	Partial	0.71167	143	1973 Jan 18	Penumbral	−1.08446
148	1973 Jul 15	Penumbral	1.51782

Last set	1969 Sep 25			Last set	1969 Apr 2

Next set	1973 Jun 15			Next set	1973 Dec 10

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).[2] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 145.

July 20, 1963	July 31, 1981

Notes

Saros series 138
Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros

External links

1972 Jul 26 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC

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[1] Saros series 138

[2] Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros