May 2040 lunar eclipse

Total eclipse
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	May 26, 2040
Gamma	−0.1872
Magnitude	1.5365
Saros cycle	131 (35 of 72)
Totality	92 minutes, 12 seconds
Partiality	210 minutes, 42 seconds
Penumbral	321 minutes, 26 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 9:05:40 U1 10:01:01 U2 11:00:16 Greatest 11:46:22 U3 12:32:28 U4 13:31:43 P4 14:27:04
← November 2039 November 2040 →

A total lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Saturday, May 26, 2040,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of 1.5365. It will be a central lunar eclipse, in which part of the Moon will pass 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 1.4 days before perigee (on May 27, 2040, at 22:25 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger.^[2]

This is the second central lunar eclipse of Saros series 131. Since this lunar event will occur near perigee, it will be referred to as a "super flower blood moon" or "super blood moon", though not quite as close to Earth as the eclipse of May 26, 2021.

The eclipse will be completely visible over Antarctica, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean, seen rising over east and south Asia and setting over North and South America.^[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.

Eclipse season of May 2040

May 11 Ascending node (new moon)	May 26 Descending node (full moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 119	Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 131

• A partial solar eclipse on May 11.
• A total lunar eclipse on May 26.
• A partial solar eclipse on November 4.
• A total lunar eclipse on November 18.

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 7, 2036
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 2044

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 14, 2033
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 7, 2047

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 21, 2031
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 31, 2049

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 26, 2029
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 26, 2051

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 16, 2022
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 6, 2058

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 15, 2011
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 6, 2069

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1953
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 28, 2127

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 January 21, 2038 and July 16, 2038 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on April 5, 2042 and September 29, 2042 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2038 to 2042
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
111	2038 Jun 17	Penumbral	1.3082		116	2038 Dec 11	Penumbral	−1.1448
121	2039 Jun 06	Partial	0.5460		126	2039 Nov 30	Partial	−0.4721
131	2040 May 26	Total	−0.1872		136	2040 Nov 18	Total	0.2361
141	2041 May 16	Partial	−0.9746		146	2041 Nov 08	Partial	0.9212
					156	2042 Oct 28	Penumbral	−

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 10, 1427. It contains partial eclipses from July 25, 1553 through March 22, 1932; total eclipses from April 2, 1950 through September 3, 2202; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 13, 2220 through April 9, 2563. The series ends at member 72 as a penumbral eclipse on July 7, 2707.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 38 at 100 minutes, 36 seconds on June 28, 2094. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[6]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2094 Jun 28, lasting 100 minutes, 36 seconds.[7]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1427 May 10	1553 Jul 25	1950 Apr 02	2022 May 16
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2148 Jul 31	2202 Sep 03	2563 Apr 09	2707 Jul 07

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 22–43 occur between 1801 and 2200:
22		23		24
1806 Jan 05		1824 Jan 16		1842 Jan 26
25		26		27
1860 Feb 07		1878 Feb 17		1896 Feb 28
28		29		30
1914 Mar 12		1932 Mar 22		1950 Apr 02
31		32		33
1968 Apr 13		1986 Apr 24		2004 May 04
34		35		36
2022 May 16		2040 May 26		2058 Jun 06
37		38		39
2076 Jun 17		2094 Jun 28		2112 Jul 09
40		41		42
2130 Jul 21		2148 Jul 31		2166 Aug 11
43
2184 Aug 21

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 Mar 10 (Saros 110)		1822 Feb 06 (Saros 111)		1833 Jan 06 (Saros 112)		1843 Dec 07 (Saros 113)		1854 Nov 04 (Saros 114)
1865 Oct 04 (Saros 115)		1876 Sep 03 (Saros 116)		1887 Aug 03 (Saros 117)		1898 Jul 03 (Saros 118)		1909 Jun 04 (Saros 119)
1920 May 03 (Saros 120)		1931 Apr 02 (Saros 121)		1942 Mar 03 (Saros 122)		1953 Jan 29 (Saros 123)		1963 Dec 30 (Saros 124)
1974 Nov 29 (Saros 125)		1985 Oct 28 (Saros 126)		1996 Sep 27 (Saros 127)		2007 Aug 28 (Saros 128)		2018 Jul 27 (Saros 129)
2029 Jun 26 (Saros 130)		2040 May 26 (Saros 131)		2051 Apr 26 (Saros 132)		2062 Mar 25 (Saros 133)		2073 Feb 22 (Saros 134)
2084 Jan 22 (Saros 135)		2094 Dec 21 (Saros 136)		2105 Nov 21 (Saros 137)		2116 Oct 21 (Saros 138)		2127 Sep 20 (Saros 139)
2138 Aug 20 (Saros 140)		2149 Jul 20 (Saros 141)		2160 Jun 18 (Saros 142)		2171 May 19 (Saros 143)		2182 Apr 18 (Saros 144)
2193 Mar 17 (Saros 145)

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

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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 138.

May 21, 2031	May 31, 2049

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

• NASA: Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future
  • 2040 May 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: 2001 to 2100^{[dead link‍]}

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