May 1975 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse took place on Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25, 1975, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1975. The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour and 28 minutes in a deep total eclipse which saw the Moon 43% of its diameter inside the Earth's umbral shadow. The visual effect of an eclipse depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere, but the Moon may have been stained a deep red colour. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours and 35 minutes in total. Occurring only 4.4 days after perigee (Perigee on May 20, 1975), the Moon's apparent diameter was 0.7% larger than average. The moon was 377,010 km (234,263 mi) from the Earth at greatest eclipse.

May 1975 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse
Date	25 May 1975
Gamma	0.23674
Magnitude	1.42533
Saros cycle	130 (32 of 72)
Totality	88 minutes, 17.9 seconds
Partiality	215 minutes, 13.2 seconds
Penumbral	336 minutes, 0.7 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 03:00:03.3 U1 04:00:23.0 U2 05:03:51.1 Greatest 05:48:00.9 U3 06:32:09.0 U4 07:35:36.2 P4 08:36:04.0

The eclipse was a dark one with the southern tip of the moon passing through the center of the Earth's shadow. This was the first central eclipse of Saros series 130.

Visibility

It was completely visible over North and South America, seen rising over Australia on the evening of Sunday 25 May 1975, and setting over Africa, and Western Europe on the morning of Sunday 25 May 1975.

Related lunar eclipses

Eclipses in 1975

• A partial solar eclipse on Sunday, 11 May 1975.
• A total lunar eclipse on Sunday, 25 May 1975.
• A partial solar eclipse on Monday, 3 November 1975.
• A total lunar eclipse on Tuesday, 18 November 1975.

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1973–1976
Ascending node					Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
110	1973 Jun 15	Penumbral	−1.32166		115	1973 Dec 10	Partial	0.96441
120	1974 Jun 04	Partial	−0.54887		125	1974 Nov 29	Total	0.30540
130	1975 May 25	Total	0.23674		135	1975 Nov 18	Total	−0.41343
140	1976 May 13	Partial	0.95860		145	1976 Nov 06	Penumbral	−1.12760
Last set	1973 Jul 15				Last set	1973 Jan 18
Next set	1977 Apr 04				Next set	1977 Sep 27

Saros series

Lunar saros series 130, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 56 umbral lunar eclipses (42 partial lunar eclipses and 14 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 137 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 will occur on 2029 Jun 26, lasting 102 minutes.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1416 Jun 10	1560 Sep 4	1921 Apr 22	1957 May 13
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2083 Jul 29	2155 Sep 11	2552 May 10	2678 Jul 26

1901–2200

1903 Apr 12		1921 Apr 22		1939 May 3
1957 May 13		1975 May 25		1993 Jun 4
2011 Jun 15		2029 Jun 26		2047 Jul 7
2065 Jul 17		2083 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 137.

May 20, 1966	May 30, 1984

See also

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

External links

• 1975 May 25 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• The Total Lunar Eclipse of May 24-25, 1975, Feinstein, A., Forte, J. C., & Cabrera, A.