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 (on 21 January 2019, at 15:00 UTC), 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 (the first full moon in a calendar year), 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 (223,694 mi).

The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California captured video showing a meteoroid 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.

+ Local times of contacts Time zoneadjustments fromUTCAmericasAtlanticEuropean/African -8h -7h -6h -5h -4h -3h -2h -1h 0h +1h +2h +3h PST MST CST EST AST GMTWET WESTCETBST CESTEETMSK−1 FETMSKEATEventEvening 20 JanuaryMorning 21 JanuaryP1 Penumbral begins* 6:37 pm 7:37 pm 8:37 pm 9:37 pm 10:37 pm 11:37 pm 12:37 am 1:37 am 2:37 am 3:37 am 4:37 am 5:37 amU1 Partial begins 7:34 pm 8:34 pm 9:34 pm 10:34 pm 11:34 pm 12:34 am 1:34 am 2:34 am 3:34 am 4:34 am 5:34 am 6:34 amU2 Total begins 8:41 pm 9:41 pm 10:41 pm 11:41 pm 12:41 am 1:41 am 2:41 am 3:41 am 4:41 am 5:41 am 6:41 am 7:41 am Mid-eclipse 9:12 pm 10:12 pm 11:12 pm 12:12 am 1:12 am 2:12 am 3:12 am 4:12 am 5:12 am 6:12 am 7:12 am 8:12 amU3 Total ends 9:43 pm 10:43 pm 11:43 pm 12:43 am 1:43 am 2:43 am 3:43 am 4:43 am 5:43 am 6:43 am 7:43 am 8:43 amU4 Partial ends 10:51 pm 11:51 pm 12:51 am 1:51 am 2:51 am 3:51 am 4:51 am 5:51 am 6:51 am 7:51 am 8:51 am 9:51 amP4 Penumbral ends* 11:48 pm 12:48 am 1:48 am 2:48 am 3:48 am 4:48 am 5:48 am 6:48 am 7:48 am 8:48 am 9:48 am 10:48 am

Gallery

America

Europe

Impact sighted

Livestreams 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 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.The space rock that hit the Moon at 61,000 kilometres an hour | The Royal Astronomical Society

Eclipse details Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

+21 January 2019 Lunar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Penumbral Magnitude 2.16972 Umbral Magnitude 1.19657 Gamma 0.36842 Sun Right Ascension 20h12m17.2s Sun Declination -19°57'48.1" Sun Semi-Diameter 16'15.2" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.9" Moon Right Ascension 08h12m28.7s Moon Declination +20°20'13.2" Moon Semi-Diameter 16'42.1" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°01'17.9" ΔT 69.1 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) 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.

+ Eclipse season of January 2019 January 6Descending node (new moon) 21 JanuaryAscending node (full moon) Partial solar eclipseSolar Saros 122 Total lunar eclipseLunar Saros 134

Related eclipses Eclipses in 2019 A partial solar eclipse on January 6. A total lunar eclipse on 21 January. A total solar eclipse on July 2. A partial lunar eclipse on July 16. An annular solar eclipse on December 26.

Metonic Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 4, 2015 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 8, 2022

Tzolkinex Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 10, 2011 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 2026

Half-Saros Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 26, 2028

Tritos Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 21, 2008 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 20, 2029

Lunar Saros 134 Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 9, 2001 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 31, 2037

Inex Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 9, 1990 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 1, 2048

Triad Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 22, 1932 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 21, 2105

Lunar eclipses of 2016–2020

Saros 134

Tritos series

Inex series

Half-Saros cycle A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 141. January 15, 2010January 26, 2028

See also List of lunar eclipses and List of 21st-century lunar eclipses

References

External links

Hermit eclipse: 2019-01-21 Eclipse information from skyandtelescope.com, including timing in different time zones