April 1903 lunar eclipse


A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Sunday, April 12, 1903, with an umbral magnitude of 0.9677. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.2 days after perigee and 7.1 days before apogee.
This nearly total lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 130 preceded the first total eclipse of the series on April 22, 1921.
It occurred on Easter Sunday, for the first time since 1846.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over eastern South America, Africa, Europe, and Antarctica, seen rising over western South America and much of North America and setting over much of Asia and western Australia.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude1.98771
Umbral Magnitude0.96765
Gamma0.47981
Sun Right Ascension01h17m19.0s
Sun Declination+08°10'13.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'57.3"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension13h17m50.3s
Moon Declination-07°43'47.7"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'38.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°57'24.1"
ΔT1.6 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months 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.
March 29
Descending node
April 12
Ascending node
Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 118

Partial lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 130

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1903

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 130

Inex

Triad

Lunar eclipses of 1901–1904

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 at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.
The penumbral lunar eclipse on March 2, 1904 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days. This lunar eclipse is related to two hybrid solar eclipses of Solar Saros 137.
April 6, 1894April 17, 1912