April 2015 lunar eclipse

April 2015 lunar eclipse
Total eclipse
Totality as viewed from Los Angeles, California, 12:00 UTC
DateApril 4, 2015
Gamma0.4460
Magnitude1.0019
Saros cycle132 (30 of 71)
Totality4 minutes, 43 seconds
Partiality209 minutes, 1 second
Penumbral357 minutes, 31 seconds
Contacts (UTC)
P109:01:27
U110:15:45
U211:57:54
Greatest12:00:15
U312:02:37
U413:44:46
P414:58:58
The chart of the lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse happened on 4 April 2015. It is the first of the two lunar eclipses in 2015, and the third of the tetrad (four total lunar eclipses in a row).

Totality only lasted for 4 minutes 43 seconds,[1] making it the shortest totality of a lunar eclipse in almost five centuries.

Background

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes within Earth's umbra (shadow).[2]

The animation below shows how the Moon looks when passing through Earth's shadow. The Moon turns red within the umbral shadow. The southern part of the Moon will be the closest to the center of the shadow, making it the darkest, and the most reddish in appearance.

Dispute

Some people argued that this lunar eclipse was not a total one. Eclipse watchers noted that during totality, there was a shiny edge on the Moon, which showed that the Moon was not completely in the Earth's shadow.[3]

Images

References

  1. ↑ Espenak, Fred. "Total Lunar Eclipse of 2015 Apr 04" (PDF). NASA's GSFC.
  2. ↑ Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus. "Visual Appearance of Lunar Eclipses". NASA. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Lunar Eclipse Wasn't Total After All?!". Sky & Telescope. 6 April 2015.
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