July 2000 lunar eclipse


A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Sunday, July 16, 2000, with an umbral magnitude of 1.7684. 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 1.1 days after apogee, the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
Totality lasted for 106 minutes and 25 seconds, the longest duration since 13 August 1859 and 3 May 459, and totality of this length will not occur again until 19 August 4753. This was the last and longest total lunar eclipse of the 20th century, as well as the second longest and last of the second millennium. It was also the eighth longest total lunar eclipse on EclipseWise's Six Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses, which covers the years 3000 BCE to 3000 AD. The longest total lunar eclipse between the years 4000 BCE and 6000 CE took place on 31 May 318. Totality lasted 106 minutes and 36 seconds, which is only 11 seconds longer than this one.

Visibility

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

The Moon passed straight through the center of the Earth's shadow at the descending node in Sagittarius of its orbit.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
ParameterValue
Penumbral magnitude2.83749
Umbral magnitude1.76839
Gamma0.03015
Sun right ascension07h44m54.7s
Sun declination+21°15'02.4"
Sun semi-diameter15'44.2"
Sun equatorial horizontal parallax08.7"
Moon right ascension19h44m54.2s
Moon declination-21°13'24.9"
Moon semi-diameter14'43.2"
Moon equatorial horizontal parallax0°54'01.2"
ΔT64.0 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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
July 1
Ascending node
July 16
Descending node
July 31
Ascending node
Partial solar eclipse
Solar Saros 117		Total lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 129		Partial solar eclipse
Solar Saros 155

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2000

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Lunar Saros 129

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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 136.
July 11, 1991July 22, 2009