A total lunar eclipse took place on 15 April 2014. It was the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2014, and the first in a

tetrad Tetrad ('group of 4') or tetrade may refer to: * Tetrad (area), an area 2 km x 2 km square * Tetrad (astronomy), four total lunar eclipses within two years * Tetrad (chromosomal formation) * Tetrad (general relativity), or frame field ** Tetra ...

(four total lunar eclipses in a series). Subsequent eclipses in the tetrad are those of 8 October 2014, 4 April 2015, and 28 September 2015. Occurring 6.7 days after apogee (Apogee on 8 April 2014), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller. The Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow. This was the last central lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 122. The eclipse was visible in the Americas and the Pacific Ocean region, including Australia and New Zealand. This eclipse occurred during the ascending phase of the

Moon's orbit The Moon orbits Earth in the retrograde and prograde motion, prograde direction and completes one orbital period, revolution relative to the March Equinox, Vernal Equinox and the fixed stars, stars in about 27.32 days (a tropical month and sider ...

, part of lunar saros 122.

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

was near

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...

Background

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within Earth's

umbra The umbra, penumbra and antumbra are three distinct parts of a shadow, created by any light source after impinging on an opaque object. Assuming no diffraction, for a collimated beam (such as a point source) of light, only the umbra is cast. T ...

(shadow). As the eclipse begins, the Earth's shadow first darkens the Moon slightly. Then, the shadow begins to "cover" part of the Moon, turning it a dark red-brown color (typically - the color can vary based on atmospheric conditions). The Moon appears to be reddish because of

Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh scattering ( ), named after the 19th-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt), is the predominantly elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of th ...

(the same effect that causes sunsets to appear reddish) and the refraction of that light by the Earth's atmosphere into its umbra. The following simulation shows the approximate appearance of the Moon passing through the Earth's shadow. The Moon's brightness is exaggerated within the umbral shadow. The northern portion of the Moon was closest to the center of the shadow, making it darkest, and most red in appearance. Animation april 15 2014 lunar eclipse appearance

Animation april 15 2014 lunar eclipse appearance

Description

On 15 April 2014, the Moon passed through the southern part of the Earth's umbral shadow. It was visible over most of the Western Hemisphere, including east Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean, and the Americas. In the western Pacific, the first half of the eclipse occurred before moonrise. In Europe and Africa, the eclipse began just before moonset.

, which had just passed its

, appeared at magnitude -1.5 about 9.5° northwest of the Moon.

Spica Spica is the brightest object in the constellation of Virgo and one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation α Virginis, which is Latinised to Alpha Virginis and abbreviated Alpha Vir or α Vir. Analys ...

was 2° to the west, while

Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of the ...

was 32° north. Saturn was 26° east and

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ ...

44° southeast. The Moon entered Earth's penumbral shadow at 4:53:40 UTC and the umbral shadow at 5:58:19. Totality lasted for 1 hour 17.8 minutes, from 7:06:46 to 8:24:34. The moment of greatest eclipse occurred at 7:45:39. At that point, the Moon's

zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

was approximately southwest of the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

. The Moon left the umbra shadow at 9:33:02 and the penumbra shadow at 10:37:33. The peak umbral magnitude was 1.2962, at which moment the northern part of the moon was 1.7

arc-minute A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The n ...

s south of the center of Earth's shadow, while the southern part was 40.0 arc-minutes from center. The gamma of the eclipse was -0.3017. The eclipse was a member of Lunar Saros 122. It was the 56th such eclipse.

Timing

* The penumbral phase of the eclipse changes the appearance of the Moon only slightly and is generally not noticeable. Lunar eclipse contact diagram

Viewing events

Many museums and observatories planned special events for the eclipse. The United States

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

Gallery

File:Lunar eclipse from moon-2014Apr15.png, Simulation of Earth from the Moon, 7:47 UTC File:April 2014 Lunar Eclipse - Partial Phase - Albuquerque, NM.jpg,

Albuquerque, NM Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, 6:02 UTC File:April-15-2014 Lunar Eclipse 0628 UTC Winnipeg MB.JPG,

Winnipeg, MB Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, 6:28 UTC File:April 2014 Lunar Eclipse Partical Phase.jpg, Rosemead, CA, 6:30 UTC File:Lunar Eclipse (Partial Phase-4), Albuquerque, NM.jpg, Albuquerque, NM, 6:45 UTC File:Japanese Lantern Precedes Total Eclipse With a Splash of Color (13886488313).jpg,

New Braunfels, TX New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 Census. A suburb just nor ...

, 7:02 UTC File:April 15, 2014 Lunar Eclipse with Spica.jpg, West Valley City, UT, 7:29 UTC
Moon with

File:Lunar eclipse April 15 2014 Minneapolis Tomruen3.jpg, Minneapolis, MN, 7:40 UTC
wide angle with Mars File:April 15 2014 Tustin CA.JPG,

Tustin, CA Tustin is a city located in Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2020, Tustin had a population of 80,276. The city is located next to the county seat, Santa Ana, and does not include the unincorporated communit ...

, 7:40 UTC File:4 15 2014 lunar eclipse tustin.JPG, Tustin, CA, 7:40 UTC File:Lunar eclipse 04-15-2014 by R Jay GaBany.jpg,

Charleston, WV Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charlesto ...

, 7:44 UTC
The full eclipse by R. Jay GaBany File:Lunar eclipse April 15 2014 Minneapolis Tomruen2.jpg, Minneapolis, MN, 7:46 UTC File:Near Greatest Eclipse 20140415.jpg,

San Jose, CA San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

, 7:46 UTC File:April 2014 Lunar Eclipse - Totality Phase with Stars- Albuquerque, NM.jpg, Albuquerque, NM, 7:49 UTC File:Eclipse lunar 15 de Abril - Iglesia de Dolores, Soriano, Uruguay.jpg, Dolores, Uruguay
between the church's tower. File:Near Total Eclipse 20140415.jpg, San Jose, CA, 8:23 UTC
End of totality File:Eclipse lunar del 15 de abril de 2014.jpg,

Montevideo, Uruguay Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern c ...

, 8:43 UTC File:Eclipsed moon casts an orange moon beam over Port Phillip Bay.jpg,

Queenscliff, Victoria Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, Australia, south of Swan Bay at the entrance to Port Phillip. It is the administrative centre for the Borough of Queenscliffe. At the , Queenscliff had a populati ...

, 9:14 UTC File:Eclipse lunar 15 de Abril, Montevideo, Uruguay.jpg, Montevideo, Uruguay

Relation to prophecy

Starting in 2008, Christian pastors

John Hagee John Charles Hagee (born April 12, 1940) is an American pastor and televangelist. The founder of John Hagee Ministries, his ministry is telecast to the United States and Canada. Hagee is also the founder and chairman of the Christian-Zionist or ...

and

Mark Biltz Mark Biltz (born June 25, 1956) is an American Christian pastor and author. His theories correlate solar and lunar eclipses with biblical prophecy, and he has published several books on the topic. He is the Washington state director of Christians ...

began teaching "blood moon prophecies": Biltz said the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...

of Jesus would occur at the end of the tetrad that began with the April 2014 eclipse, while Hagee said only that the tetrad is a sign of something significant. The idea gained popular media attention in the United States, and prompted a response from the scientific radio show ''

Earth & Sky ''Earth & Sky'' was a daily radio series that presented information about science and nature. It began broadcasting in 1991 and ceased operations in 2013. ''EarthSky'' is the ongoing website, serving 21 million users in 2019, according to Google ...

''. According to ''

Christian Today ''Christian Today'' is a non-denominational Christian news company with its international headquarters in London, England.Christian Today > Contact Us/ref> History The website was established in 2000 to report on news in the global church a ...

'', only a "small group of Christians" saw the eclipse as having religious significance, despite the attention.

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 2014

* A total lunar eclipse on 15 April. * A non-central annular solar eclipse on 29 April. * A total lunar eclipse on 8 October. * A partial solar eclipse on 23 October. The 15 April 2014 eclipse was the first eclipse in a tetrad; that is, four consecutive total eclipses with no partial eclipses in between. There will be another eclipse every six lunar cycles during the tetrad – on 8 October 2014, 4 April 2015, and 28 September 2015. The

lunar year A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gr ...

series repeats after 12 cycles, or 354 days, causing a date shift when compared to the solar calendar. This shift means the Earth's shadow will move about 11 degrees west in each subsequent eclipse. This tetrad started during the ascending node of the Moon's orbit. It is the first tetrad since the 2003–04 series, which started in

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

. The next series will be from 2032 to 2033, starting in

April April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. It is the first of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the second of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. April is commonly associated with ...

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 hybrid total/annualar solar eclipses of solar saros 129.

References

External links

*
NASA LRO April 2014 Lunar Eclipse Animations

Hermit eclipse: 2014-04-15

''

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

''
Animation of the April 14/15 2014 eclipse
at shadowandsubstance.com
Online live view of the Eclipse
at virtualtelescope.eu *

APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a website provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University (MTU). According to the website, "Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written ...

br>Spica, Mars, and Eclipsed Moon
4/16/2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar eclipse 2014-04 2014 in science 2014-04 April 2014 events