July 1953 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse July 26, 1953
(No photo)
The moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series	128 (37 of 71)
Gamma	-0.0071
Magnitude	1.8628
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	1:40:42
Partial	3:35:42
Penumbral	5:26:30
Contacts (UTC)
P1	9:37:55
U1	10:33:19
U2	11:30:49
Greatest	12:21:10
U3	13:11:31
U4	14:09:01
P4	15:04:25

A total lunar eclipse took place on Sunday, July 26, 1953.

The Moon passed through the very center of the Earth's shadow. While the visual effect of a total lunar eclipse is variable, the Moon may have been stained a deep orange or red colour at maximum eclipse. This was a great spectacle for everyone who saw it from Australia as well as parts of Asia, Korea, New Zealand and Hawaii. The partial lunar eclipse lasted for 3 hours and 35 minutes 42 seconds in total. With an umbral lunar eclipse magnitude of 1.8628, this was the largest lunar eclipse of the 20th century. Gamma had a value of only -0.0071. Due to the Moon's relatively large size, totality lasted 100 minutes 42 seconds unlike July 16, 2000 which lasted 106 minutes 25 seconds, the longest since August 13, 1859 (which was only 3 seconds longer). This was the darkest total lunar eclipse in the 20th century.

Visibility

It can all be seen from Australia, is seen rising in East Asia and is seen in North and South America. It is also visible from Korea as well as New Zealand and Hawaii, including Vietnam

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1951–1955

Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart		Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
103	1951 Feb 21	Penumbral		108	1951 Aug 17	Penumbral
113	1952 Feb 11	Partial		118	1952 Aug 5	Partial
123	1953 Jan 29	Total		128	1953 Jul 26	Total
133	1954 Jan 19	Total		138	1954 Jul 16	Partial
143	1955 Jan 8	Penumbral
Last set	1951 Mar 23			Last set	1951 Sep 15
Next set	1955 Nov 29			Next set	1955 Jun 5

Saros series

Lunar saros series 128, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 57 umbral eclipses (42 partial lunar eclipses and 15 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 135 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1953 Jul 26, lasting 100.7 minutes.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1304 Jun 18	1430 Sep 2	1845 May 21	1899 Jun 23
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2007 Aug 28	2097 May 21	2440 May 17	2566 Aug 2

1901–2100

1917 Jul 4		1935 Jul 16		1953 Jul 26
1971 Aug 6		1989 Aug 17		2007 Aug 28
2025 Sep 7		2043 Sep 19		2061 Sep 29
2079 Oct 10		2097 Oct 21

Lunar Saros 128 contains 15 total lunar eclipses between 1845 and 2097 (in years 1845, 1863, 1881, 1899, 1917, 1935, 1953, 1971, 1989, 2007, 2025, 2043, 2061, 2079 and 2097). Solar Saros 135 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Inex series

The inex series repeats eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the Moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, the variation of the Moon in its elliptical orbit at each event causes the actual eclipse time to vary significantly. It is a part of Lunar Inex series 39.

All events in this series listed below and more are total lunar eclipses.

Inex series from 1000 to 2500 AD

Ascending node		Descending node		Ascending node		Descending node
Saros	Date	Saros	Date	Saros	Date	Saros	Date
96	1027 Apr 23	97	1056 Apr 2	98	1085 Mar 14	99	1114 Feb 21
100	1143 Feb 1	101	1172 Jan 13	102	1200 Dec 22	103	1229 Dec 2
104	1258 Nov 12	105	1287 Oct 22	106	1316 Oct 2	107	1345 Sep 12
108	1374 Aug 22	109	1403 Aug 2	110	1432 Jul 13	111	1461 Jun 22
112	1490 Jun 2	113	1519 May 14	114	1548 Apr 22	115	1577 Apr 2
116	1606 Mar 24	117	1635 Mar 3	118	1664 Feb 11	119	1693 Jan 22
120	1722 Jan 2	121	1750 Dec 13	122	1779 Nov 23	123	1808 Nov 3
124	1837 Oct 13	125	1866 Sep 24	126	1895 Sep 4	127	1924 Aug 14
128	1953 Jul 26	129	1982 Jul 6	130	2011 Jun 15	131	2040 May 26
132	2069 May 6	133	2098 Apr 15	134	2127 Mar 28	135	2156 Mar 7
136	2185 Feb 14	137	2214 Jan 27	138	2243 Jan 7	139	2271 Dec 17
140	2300 Nov 27	141	2329 Nov 7	142	2358 Oct 18	143	2387 Sep 28
144	2416 Sep 7	145	2445 Aug 17	146	2474 Jul 29

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 135.

July 20, 1944	July 31, 1962

See also

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

External links

• NASA: Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future
  • 1953 Jul 26 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Index to Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses, -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE)
    • Eclipses: 1901 to 2000
• Photoelectric Photometry of the Lunar Eclipse of July 26, 1953, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 69, No. 407, p.153

References

• Bao-Lin Liu, Canon of Lunar Eclipses 1500 B.C.-A.D. 3000, 1992