May 2069 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse May 6, 2069
The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series (and member)	132 (33 of 71)
Gamma	0.272
Magnitude	1.327
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	01:24:16
Partial	03:46:11
Penumbral	06:08:07
Contacts
P1	06:03:38 UTC
U1	07:14:38 UTC
U2	08:25:35 UTC
Greatest	09:07:43 UTC
U3	09:49:42 UTC
U4	11:00:49 UTC
P4	12:11:45 UTC
The eclipse occurs in the constellation Libra at the ascending node of the moon's orbit.

A total lunar eclipse will take place on May 6, 2069. The eclipse will be dark, with the southern tip of the Moon passing through the center of the Earth's shadow. This is the first central eclipse of Saros series 132.

It is the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2069, the second occurring at the descending node of the Moon's orbit will be on October 30, which will also be a central total eclipse.

It is the third of an almost tetrad, the others being 17 May 2068 (P), 9 Nov 2068 (T) and 30 October 2069 (T).

Visibility

The eclipse will be visible after sunset over Australia and begin before sunset over far eastern Asia, and be seen in the predawn hours over western North and South America.

This simulated view of the Earth from the center of the Moon during greatest eclipse show where the eclipse will be visible on Earth.

The Moon will also occult the bright star Alpha Librae as seen from the southern hemisphere a few hours before greatest eclipse.^[1]

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar eclipses are related by many different eclipse cycles. The Saros cycle (18 years and 10 days) repeats the most consistently due three coinciding periods, and continue over 70 events (1200+ years). Eclipses are identified by a Saros number and a member index within each series.

The lunar year (354 days) and Metonic cycles (19 years) are short period last only 8 to 10 events. The Metonic cycle is equal to one Saros cycle plus one lunar year, and so the two series progress in parallel.

The Inex cycle (29 years minus 20 days) can last tens of thousands of years, so long that long perturbations in the Moon's path must be taken into account for prediction. Also the eclipse qualities are less inconsistent because the Moon is at different significantly positions in its elliptical orbit in sequential events. Similarly for the shorter Tritos cycle (10 years and 31 days), repeats less consistently for the same reason.

Lunar year series

This eclipse is the third of four lunar year eclipses occurring at the Moon's ascending node.

The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2067-2070
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart
Ascending node			Descending node
112	2067 May 28	Penumbral	117	2067 Nov 21	Penumbral
122	2068 May 17	Partial	127	2068 Nov 09	Total
132	2069 May 06	Total	137	2069 Oct 30	Total
142	2070 Apr 25	Penumbral	147	2070 Oct 19	Partial

Metonic series

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

This series has 9 events centered on May 6th and October 30th: (saros number)

Ascending node	Descending node
2031 May 07.160 - penumbral (112) 2050 May 06.937 - total (122) 2069 May 06.380 - total (132) 2088 May 05.677 - partial (142) 2107 May 07.186 - penumbral (152)	2031 Oct 30.323 - penumbral (117) 2050 Oct 30.139 - total (127) 2069 Oct 30.148 - total (137) 2088 Oct 30.125 - partial (147)

Saros series

Lunar saros series 132, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 44 umbral lunar eclipses (32 partial lunar eclipses and 12 total lunar eclipses).

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2123 Jun 9, lasting 106 minutes.^[2]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1492 May 12	1636 Aug 16	2015 Apr 4	2069 May 6
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2177 Jul 11	2213 Aug 2	2429 Dec 11	2754 Jun 26

There are 11 series events between 1901 and 2100, grouped into threes (called an exeligmos), each column with approximately the same viewing longitude on earth.

1901–2100
1907 Jan 29	1925 Feb 8	1943 Feb 20

1961 Mar 2	1979 Mar 13	1997 Mar 24

2015 Apr 4	2033 Apr 14	2051 Apr 26

2069 May 6	2087 May 17

Tritos series

The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.

This series produces 20 total eclipses between April 24, 1967 and August 11, 2185, only being partial on November 19, 2021.

Tritos eclipse series (subset 1901–2087)
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart
115	1901 Oct 27	Partial	116	1912 Sep 26	Partial
117	1923 Aug 26	Partial	118	1934 Jul 26	Partial
119	1945 Jun 25	Partial	120	1956 May 24	Partial
121	1967 Apr 24	Total	122	1978 Mar 24	Total
123	1989 Feb 20	Total	124	2000 Jan 21	Total
125	2010 Dec 21	Total	126	2021 Nov 19	Partial
127	2032 Oct 18	Total	128	2043 Sep 19	Total
129	2054 Aug 18	Total	130	2065 Jul 17	Total
131	2076 Jun 17	Total	132	2087 May 17	Total
133	2098 Apr 15	Total

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).^[3] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.

April 30, 2060	May 11, 2078

Notes

^ Jean Meeus, G. P. Konnen, "Occultations of Bright Stars by the Eclipsed Moon", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 17-24 (1974).
^ Listing of Eclipses of series 132
^ Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros

External links

NASA: Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future
- 2069 May 06 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: 2001 to 2100^{[dead link‍]}

References

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

[1] Jean Meeus, G. P. Konnen, "Occultations of Bright Stars by the Eclipsed Moon", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 17-24 (1974).

[2] Listing of Eclipses of series 132

[3] Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros

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