January 2019 lunar eclipse


A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Monday, 21 January 2019, with an umbral magnitude of 1.1966. 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 10 hours before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
Because the Moon was near its perigee on 21 January, it can be described as a "supermoon". As this supermoon was also a wolf moon, it was referred to as a "super blood wolf moon"; blood refers to the typical red color of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This was the last total lunar eclipse until May 2021. This was a Super Full Moon because occurred less than a day before perigee and the Moon was less than exactly 360,000 km.
The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California captured video showing a meteoroid between the size of an acorn and tennis ball impacting the Moon during the eclipse. The impact was observed during totality, at 4:41 UTC, on the left side of the Moon. It is the only documented case of a lunar impact during a total lunar eclipse.

Appearance

This lunar eclipse took place in the constellation of Cancer, just west of the Beehive Cluster.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over North and South America and western Europe, seen rising over the central Pacific Ocean, and setting over Africa, most of Europe, and the Middle East.

Visibility map

Timing

The penumbral phases of the eclipse changes the appearance of the Moon only slightly and is generally not noticeable.

Impact sighted

detected a flash of light while viewing the eclipse. It was "likely caused by the crash of a tiny, fast-moving meteoroid left behind by a comet."
Originally thinking it was electronic noise from the camera, astronomers and citizen scientists shared the visual phenomenon with each other to identify it.
When totality was just beginning at 4:41 UT, the tiny speck of light blinked south of a nearly 55-mile-wide crater in the western part of the moon.
The location of the impact may be somewhere in the lunar highlands, south of Byrgius crater, according to Justin Cowart, a graduate student in geosciences at Stony Brook University in New York who first saw the flash of light.
"A meteoroid about this size hits the moon about once a week or so," said Cowart.
This may be the first time that a collision, during a total lunar eclipse, was captured on video.
"I have not heard of anyone seeing an impact like this during a lunar eclipse before," said Sara Russell, a professor of planetary sciences at the Natural [History Museum, London|Natural History Museum] in London.
People posted their images and video of a flicker of light as news spread quickly on social media.
Working overtime, co-director of the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System, MIDAS, an astrophysicist at the University of Huelva in Spain, Jose Maria Madiedo, set up eight telescopes to watch for any impacts during the eclipse.
"Something inside of me told me that this time would be the time," said Madiedo.
A paper calculated a mass between 20 and 100 kilograms and diameter of 30 to 50 cm that may have caused a 7–15 meter crater located "inside a triangle with vertices in the Lagrange H, K and X craters". Other astronomers estimated a 10-15 meter crater from a 45 kg asteroid moving 61,000 km/h.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
ParameterValue
Penumbral Magnitude2.16972
Umbral Magnitude1.19657
Gamma0.36842
Sun Right Ascension20h12m17.2s
Sun Declination-19°57'48.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'15.2"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension08h12m28.7s
Moon Declination+20°20'13.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'42.1"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax1°01'17.9"
ΔT69.1 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.
January 6, 2019|January 6]
Descending node
21 January
Ascending node
Partial solar eclipse
Solar Saros 122		Total lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 134

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2019

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 134

Inex

Triad

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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 141.
January 15, 2010January 26, 2028