April 1948 lunar eclipse

April 1948 lunar eclipse
Partial eclipse
	The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	April 23, 1948
Gamma	1.0017
Magnitude	0.0230
Saros cycle	111 (63 of 71)
Partiality	34 minutes, 21 seconds
Penumbral	257 minutes, 35 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	11:29:58
U1	13:21:33
Greatest	13:38:50
U4	13:55:54
P4	15:47:34
	← November 1947 October 1948 →

A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Friday, April 23, 1948,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 0.0230. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in the Earth's penumbra. 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. Occurring about 3.5 days after perigee (on April 20, 1948, at 2:05 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

Visibility

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

Eclipse details

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

April 23, 1948 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	1.01720
Umbral Magnitude	0.02300
Gamma	1.00165
Sun Right Ascension	02h04m17.6s
Sun Declination	+12°37'06.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'54.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	14h06m01.0s
Moon Declination	-11°44'01.4"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'59.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°58'42.0"
ΔT	28.4 s

Eclipse season

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 April–May 1948
April 23 Descending node (full moon)	May 9 Ascending node (new moon)

Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 111	Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 137

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1948–1951

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1947–1951
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
111	1948 Apr 23	Partial	116	1948 Oct 18	Penumbral
121	1949 Apr 13	Total	126	1949 Oct 07	Total
131	1950 Apr 02	Total	136	1950 Sep 26	Total
141	1951 Mar 23	Penumbral	146	1951 Sep 15	Penumbral

Saros 111

Lunar Saros 111, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 11 total lunar eclipses. The first total lunar eclipse of this series was on April 19, 1353, and last was on August 4, 1533. The longest occurrence of this series was on June 12, 1443 when the totality lasted 106 minutes.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[5] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 118.