August 1942 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	August 26, 1942
Gamma	0.1818
Magnitude	1.5344
Saros cycle	127 (38 of 72)
Totality	93 minutes, 23 seconds
Partiality	214 minutes, 11 seconds
Penumbral	329 minutes, 32 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 1:03:16 U1 2:00:53 U2 3:01:17 Greatest 3:48:00 U3 4:34:40 U4 5:35:04 P4 6:32:48
← March 1942 February 1943 →

A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Wednesday, August 26, 1942,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 1.5344. It was a central lunar eclipse, in which part of the Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Occurring about 2.7 days after perigee (on August 23, 1942, at 9:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

The eclipse was completely visible over eastern North America, South America, west Africa, and Antarctica, seen rising over western North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean and setting over Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.^[3]

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.^[4]

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Eclipse season of August–September 1942

August 12 Ascending node (new moon)	August 26 Descending node (full moon)	September 10 Ascending node (new moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 115	Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 127	Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 153

• A total lunar eclipse on March 3.
• A partial solar eclipse on March 16.
• A partial solar eclipse on August 12.
• A total lunar eclipse on August 26.
• A partial solar eclipse on September 10.

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 7, 1938
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 14, 1946

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 16, 1935
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 7, 1949

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 21, 1933
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 1, 1951

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 26, 1931
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1953

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 14, 1924
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 5, 1960

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 15, 1913
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 6, 1971

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 25, 1855
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 26, 2029

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[5]

The penumbral lunar eclipses on April 22, 1940 and October 16, 1940 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on July 6, 1944 and December 29, 1944 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1940 to 1944
Ascending node					Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
102	1940 Mar 23	Penumbral	−1.5034		107
112	1941 Mar 13	Partial	−0.8437		117	1941 Sep 05	Partial	0.9747
122	1942 Mar 03	Total	−0.1545		127	1942 Aug 26	Total	0.1818
132	1943 Feb 20	Partial	0.5752		137	1943 Aug 15	Partial	−0.5534
142	1944 Feb 09	Penumbral	1.2698		147	1944 Aug 04	Penumbral	−1.2843

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 127, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 9, 1275. It contains partial eclipses from November 4, 1473 through May 18, 1780; total eclipses from May 29, 1798 through November 9, 2068; and a second set of partial eclipses from November 20, 2086 through June 17, 2429. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on September 2, 2555.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 35 at 101 minutes, 46 seconds on July 23, 1888. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[6]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1888 Jul 23, lasting 101 minutes, 46 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1275 Jul 09	1473 Nov 04	1798 May 29	1834 Jun 21
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1960 Sep 05	2068 Nov 09	2429 Jun 17	2555 Sep 02

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

Series members 31–52 occur between 1801 and 2200:
31		32		33
1816 Jun 10		1834 Jun 21		1852 Jul 01
34		35		36
1870 Jul 12		1888 Jul 23		1906 Aug 04
37		38		39
1924 Aug 14		1942 Aug 26		1960 Sep 05
40		41		42
1978 Sep 16		1996 Sep 27		2014 Oct 08
43		44		45
2032 Oct 18		2050 Oct 30		2068 Nov 09
46		47		48
2086 Nov 20		2104 Dec 02		2122 Dec 13
49		50		51
2140 Dec 23		2159 Jan 04		2177 Jan 14
52
2195 Jan 26

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
1811 Sep 02 (Saros 115)		1822 Aug 03 (Saros 116)		1833 Jul 02 (Saros 117)		1844 May 31 (Saros 118)		1855 May 02 (Saros 119)
1866 Mar 31 (Saros 120)		1877 Feb 27 (Saros 121)		1888 Jan 28 (Saros 122)		1898 Dec 27 (Saros 123)		1909 Nov 27 (Saros 124)
1920 Oct 27 (Saros 125)		1931 Sep 26 (Saros 126)		1942 Aug 26 (Saros 127)		1953 Jul 26 (Saros 128)		1964 Jun 25 (Saros 129)
1975 May 25 (Saros 130)		1986 Apr 24 (Saros 131)		1997 Mar 24 (Saros 132)		2008 Feb 21 (Saros 133)		2019 Jan 21 (Saros 134)
2029 Dec 20 (Saros 135)		2040 Nov 18 (Saros 136)		2051 Oct 19 (Saros 137)		2062 Sep 18 (Saros 138)		2073 Aug 17 (Saros 139)
2084 Jul 17 (Saros 140)		2095 Jun 17 (Saros 141)		2106 May 17 (Saros 142)		2117 Apr 16 (Saros 143)		2128 Mar 16 (Saros 144)
2139 Feb 13 (Saros 145)		2150 Jan 13 (Saros 146)		2160 Dec 13 (Saros 147)		2171 Nov 12 (Saros 148)		2182 Oct 11 (Saros 149)
2193 Sep 11 (Saros 150)

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 40.

All events in this series shown (from 1000 to 2500) are central total lunar eclipses.

Inex series from 1000–2500 AD

Descending node		Ascending node		Descending node		Ascending node
Saros	Date	Saros	Date	Saros	Date	Saros	Date
95	1016 May 24	96	1045 May 3	97	1074 Apr 14	98	1103 Mar 25
99	1132 Mar 3	100	1161 Feb 12	101	1190 Jan 23	102	1219 Jan 2
103	1247 Dec 13	104	1276 Nov 23	105	1305 Nov 2	106	1334 Oct 13
107	1363 Sep 23	108	1392 Sep 2	109	1421 Aug 13	110	1450 Jul 24
111	1479 Jul 4	112	1508 Jun 13	113	1537 May 24	114	1566 May 4
115	1595 Apr 24	116	1624 Apr 3	117	1653 Mar 14	118	1682 Feb 21
119	1711 Feb 3	120	1740 Jan 13	121	1768 Dec 23	122	1797 Dec 4
123	1826 Nov 14	124	1855 Oct 25	125	1884 Oct 4	126	1913 Sep 15
127	1942 Aug 26	128	1971 Aug 6	129	2000 Jul 16	130	2029 Jun 26
131	2058 Jun 6	132	2087 May 17	133	2116 Apr 27	134	2145 Apr 7
135	2174 Mar 18	136	2203 Feb 26	137	2232 Feb 7	138	2261 Jan 17
139	2289 Dec 27	140	2318 Dec 9	141	2347 Nov 19	142	2376 Oct 28
143	2405 Oct 8	144	2434 Sep 18	145	2463 Aug 29	146	2492 Aug 8

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[8] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 134.

August 21, 1933	September 1, 1951

• List of lunar eclipses and List of 21st-century lunar eclipses

• Saros series 127
• 1942 Aug 26 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC