April 1958 lunar eclipse

April 1958 lunar eclipse
Penumbral eclipse
	The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	April 4, 1958
Gamma	−1.5381
Magnitude	−0.9421
Saros cycle	102 (84 of 84)
Penumbral	31 minutes, 2 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	3:44:10
Greatest	3:59:43
P4	4:15:12
	← November 1957 May 1958 →

A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, April 4, 1958,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.9421. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. 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. Occurring only about 16.5 hours before perigee (on April 3, 1958, at 20:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

This was the last penumbral lunar eclipse in Lunar Saros 102. In this extremely marginal eclipse, the Moon barely clipped the edge of the Earth's penumbral shadow. This caused a microscopic darkening of just 1% of the Moon's disc for about 31 minutes, which was essentially impossible to see.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over North America, South America, most of Africa and western Europe.^[3]

Eclipse details

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

April 4, 1958 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.01359
Umbral Magnitude	−0.94211
Gamma	−1.53805
Sun Right Ascension	00h51m06.5s
Sun Declination	+05°28'40.0"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'59.5"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	12h49m12.4s
Moon Declination	-06°58'45.5"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'43.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°01'24.6"
ΔT	32.4 s

Eclipse season

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 April–May 1958
April 4 Ascending node (full moon)	April 19 Descending node (new moon)	May 3 Ascending node (full moon)

Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 102	Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 128	Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 140

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1958–1962

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1958–1962
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
102	1958 Apr 04	Penumbral	-1.53805
112	1959 Mar 24	Partial	-0.87571	117	1959 Sep 17	Penumbral	1.02963
122	1960 Mar 13	Total	-0.17990	127	1960 Sep 05	Total	0.24219
132	1961 Mar 02	Partial	0.55406	137	1961 Aug 26	Partial	-0.48947
142	1962 Feb 19	Penumbral	1.25115	147	1962 Aug 15	Penumbral	-1.22104

Last set	1958 May 03			Last set	1958 Oct 27

Next set	1963 Jan 09			Next set	1962 Jul 17