November 2003 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse 8–9 November 2003
Totality from Minneapolis, 1:16 UTC
The moon's path through the Earth's shadow
Series (and member)	126 (45 of 72)
Gamma	-0.4319
Magnitude	1.0178
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	21:58
Partial	3:31:25
Penumbral	6:03:09
Contacts (UTC)
P1	22:16:59 (Nov 8)
U1	23:32:50 (Nov 8)
U2	1:07:34
Greatest	1:18:34
U3	1:29:32
U4	3:04:15
P4	4:20:08
The moon's hourly motion across the Earth's shadow in the constellation of Aries.

A total lunar eclipse took place on Sunday 9 November 2003, the second of two total lunar eclipses in 2003, the first being on 16 May 2003. It is the first total lunar eclipse of 21st century which happened on a micromoon day. The Moon barely edged into total eclipse for 21 minutes and 58 seconds. With the Moon just 1.78% of its diameter into the Earth's umbral shadow, the Moon may have been quite bright, but even so, this should have been worth seeing. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 31 minutes and 25 seconds. Occurring only 1.4 days before apogee (Apogee on Monday 10 November 2003), the Moon's apparent diameter was 6.4% smaller than average.

This was the last of 14 total lunar eclipses of Lunar Saros 126, which started on 19 June 1769 and ended on 9 November 2003.

Visibility

It was completely visible over Americas, Europe, Africa and central Asia, seen rising over the Americas and setting over central Asia.

Photo gallery

Grand Rapids, MI, 0:58 UT
Minneapolis, MN, 1:00 UT
Oudenaarde, Belgium, 1:08 UT
Minneapolis, MN, 1:24 UT
Grand Rapids, MI, 2:28 UT

Relation to other lunar eclipses

Eclipse season

This is the first eclipse this season.

Second eclipse this season: 23 November 2003 Total Solar Eclipse

Eclipses of 2003

A total lunar eclipse on 16 May.
An annular solar eclipse (one limit) on 31 May.
A total lunar eclipse on 9 November.
A total solar eclipse on 23 November.

Lunar year series

It is the second of four lunar year cycles, repeating every 354 days.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2002–2005
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros Photo	Date View	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros Photo	Date View	Type Chart	Gamma
111	2002 May 26	penumbral	1.1759	116	2002 Nov 20	penumbral	−1.1127
121	2003 May 16	total	0.4123	126	2003 Nov 09	total	−0.4319
131	2004 May 04	total	−0.3132	136	2004 Oct 28	total	0.2846
141	2005 Apr 24	penumbral	−1.0885	146	2005 Oct 17	partial	0.9796

Last set	2002 Jun 24			Last set	2001 Dec 30

Next set	2006 Mar 14			Next set	2006 Sep 07

Saros series

It is part of saros series 126.

Lunar saros series 126, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 70 lunar eclipse events including 14 total lunar eclipses. Solar Saros 133 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

First penumbral lunar eclipse: 18 July 1228

First partial lunar eclipse: 24 March 1625

First total lunar eclipse: 19 June 1769

First central lunar eclipse: 11 July 1805

Greatest eclipse of the lunar saros 126: 13 August 1859, lasting 106 minutes.

Last central lunar eclipse: 26 September 1931

Last total lunar eclipse: 9 November 2003

Last partial lunar eclipse: 5 June 2346

Last penumbral lunar eclipse: 19 August 2472

1901-2100

Metonic series

This eclipse is the second of five Metonic cycle lunar eclipses on the same date, 8–9 November, each separated by 19 years:

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

1984 May 15.19 - penumbral (111) 2003 May 16.15 - total (121) 2022 May 16.17 - total (131) 2041 May 16.03 - penumbral (141)	1984 Nov 08.75 - penumbral (116) 2003 Nov 09.05 - total (126) 2022 Nov 08.46 - total (136) 2041 Nov 08.19 - partial (146) 2060 Nov 08.17 - penumbral (156)

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.