A total

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...

took place on Sunday, November 9, 2003, the second of two total lunar eclipses in 2003, the first being on May 16, 2003. It is the first total lunar eclipse of 21st century which happened on a micromoon day. The Moon barely edged into total eclipse for 21 minutes and 58 seconds. With the Moon just 1.78% of its diameter into the Earth's umbral shadow, the Moon may have been quite bright, but even so, this should have been worth seeing. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 31 minutes and 25 seconds. Occurring only 1.4 days before apogee (Apogee on Monday, November 10, 2003), the Moon's apparent diameter was 6.4% smaller than average. This was the last of 14 total lunar eclipses of

Lunar Saros 126 Saros cycle series 126 for lunar eclipses occurs at the moon's ascending node, 18 years 11 and 1/3 days. It contains 70 member events, with 14 total eclipses, starting in 1769 and ending in 2003. This lunar saros is linked to Solar Saros 133. Li ...

, which started on 19 June 1769 and ended on 9 November 2003.

Visibility

It was completely visible over Americas, Europe, Africa and central Asia, seen rising over the Americas and setting over central Asia. Lunar eclipse from moon-2003Nov09

Photo gallery

Image:Eclipse01.jpg,

Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, 0:58 UT Image:Lunar eclipse November 2003-TLR35.jpg,

Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, 1:00 UT Image:Garrulus - Eclipse (by).jpg, Oudenaarde, Belgium, 1:08 UT Image:Lunar eclipse November 2003-TLR77.jpg, Minneapolis, MN, 1:24 UT Image:Eclipse 2003.jpg, Grand Rapids, MI, 2:28 UT

Relation to other lunar eclipses

Eclipse season An eclipse season is the period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Moon's tilted orbital plane ( tilted five degrees to the Earth's orbital plane), just as Earth's wea ...

This is the first eclipse this season. Second eclipse this season: 23 November 2003 Total Solar Eclipse

Eclipses of 2003

* A total lunar eclipse on May 16. * An annular solar eclipse (one limit) on May 31. * A total lunar eclipse on November 9. * A total solar eclipse on November 23.

Lunar year series

It is the second of four lunar year cycles, repeating every 354 days.

Saros series

Metonic series

This eclipse is the second of five

Metonic cycle The Metonic cycle or enneadecaeteris (from grc, ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, from ἐννεακαίδεκα, "nineteen") is a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases recur at the same time of the year. The recu ...

lunar eclipses on the same date, November 8–9, each separated by 19 years:

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, ''The half-saros'' This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of

Solar Saros 133 Saros cycle series 133 for solar eclipses occurs at the Moon's ascending node, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 72 events. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon's ascending node. Solar Saros 133 is one of the saros series ...

References

External links

Saros cycle 126
*

2003-11 2003 in science November 2003 events {{lunar-eclipse-stub