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February 9, 2009: Year's First Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

by TDH | February 9, 2009 at 09:52 am

4193 views | 4 Recommendations | 6 comments

Much of Asia, Australia, and parts of Western North America, witnessed the first penumbral lunar eclpise of 2009. Not quite as spectacular as a full lunar or partial lunar eclipse, a penumbral eclipse occurs when the earth passes in between the sun and the moon - but only such that the outer, lighter section of the earth's shadow, the penumbra, is cast upon the moon.

The Earth's outer shadow, called the penumbra, is not as dark. Monday's event is called a penumbral eclipse, because only this outer, partial shadow will fall on the moon.

Viewers of the eclipse in Asia and Australia witnessed a darkening of the moon, while Eastern North America missed out. Star gazers in Alaska and Hawaii, however, witnessed the event, provided they were up and about between the wee hours of 2:36 and 3:36 a.m. PST.

The eclipse will be visible just before dawn from western North America, as well as earlier in the morning in Hawaii and Australia. The moon will be near the western horizon, about to set. Only those with dark skies during the timing of the event will have a chance to see much, weather permitting.

The U.S. Naval Observatory has an eclipse calculator which allows users to accurately predict the occurrence of the next lunar event.

Some have commented on the coincidental occurrence of the eclipse and the wildfires which ravaged much of Australia recently.

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Kaki Bakar

at 17:10 on February 9th, 2009

Photos of Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on 1231am, 10 February 2009 (Peninsular Malaysia time)

Kaki Bakar has contributed a photo to this story.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kakibakar/

dmcruz

at 17:17 on February 9th, 2009

The full moon at 8:30 PM and the eclipse at 8:58 PM.

dmcruz has contributed a photo to this story.

Caesda

at 19:37 on February 9th, 2009

It's great to have my photo contributed to this story.

hellokris

at 20:30 on February 9th, 2009

MANILA, PHILIPPINES-- The Penumbral Lunar Eclipse began as the Moon enters penumbra at 8:36 p.m. and endend the following morning at 12:39 a.m.

The astronomical event will also be observed in Alaska, Australia, eastern Asia, Hawaii, New Zealand and the western parts of Canada and the United States.

A penumbra refers to a partially shaded outer region of a shadow that an object casts. A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the faint penumbral portion of the Earth’s shadow.

According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, this event is the deepest penumbral eclipse in 2009, with a penumbral magnitude of 0.899. This is the first of six eclipse events this year – was observed in the country.

hellokris has contributed a photo to this story.

Rohitc

at 21:43 on February 9th, 2009

This Photo was taken from Bangalore 19:30 hours on the 9th of Feb 2009 during the Lunar Eclipse... However India did not witness the eclipse, but it did slightly appear darker than usual(Penumbral region)

Rohitc has contributed a photo to this story.