July 1972 lunar eclipse

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.

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
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
← January 1972 January 1973 →

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

• An annular solar eclipse on Sunday, 16 January 1972.
• A total lunar eclipse on Sunday, 30 January 1972.
• A total solar eclipse on Monday, 10 July 1972.
• A partial lunar eclipse on Wednesday, 26 July 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 06	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 02
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

See also

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

Notes

1. Saros series 138
2. 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