October 1948 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse took place on Monday, October 18, 1948. It was a relatively rare total penumbral lunar eclipse where the moon passes entirely within the penumbral shadow, but not at all in the darker umbral shadow. In a rare total penumbral eclipse, the entire Moon was partially shaded by the Earth (though none of it was in complete shadow), and the shading across the Moon should have been quite visible at maximum eclipse. The penumbral phase lasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes in all, though for most of it, the eclipse was extremely difficult or impossible to see.

Visibility

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1947–1951

Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart		Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
111	1948 Apr 23	Partial		116	1948 Oct 18	Penumbral
121	1949 Apr 13	Total		126	1949 Oct 07	Total
131	1950 Apr 02	Total		136	1950 Sep 26	Total
141	1951 Mar 23	Penumbral		146	1951 Sep 15	Penumbral

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 123.

October 12, 1939	October 23, 1957

See also

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

External links

• 1948 Oct 18 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC