Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 9 February 2009
From Chennai, India at 14:29 UTC
The Moon passes right to left through the Earth's southern penumbral shadow.
Series (and member)	143 (18 of 73)
Gamma	-1.0640
Magnitude	0.8994
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Penumbral	3:58:49
Contacts (UTC)
P1	12:38:50
Greatest	14:38:16
P4	16:37:39
The Moon moves right to left (west to east) through the constellation Leo

A penumbral lunar eclipse took place on 9 February 2009, the first of four lunar eclipses in 2009, and being the deepest of three penumbral eclipses.^[1] It also happened on the Lantern Festival, the first since 20 February 1989. The tables below contain detailed predictions and additional information on the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 9 February 2009.

Eclipse season

This is the second eclipse this season.

First eclipse this season: 26 January 2009 Annular Solar Eclipse

Visibility

The eclipse was not visible in the East coast of the United States, South America and southernmost Mexico, Western Africa and western Europe. Best visibility was expected over most of Asia, the Western US, Mexico and throughout the Pacific region.^[2]

This simulated view shows the Earth and Sun as viewed from the center of the Moon near contact points P1 and P4. The eclipse will be visible from Earth from the locations of the world as seen on the Earth above.

Map

Photo

Pune, India, 13:18 UTC
Subang Jaya, Malaysia, 14:37 UTC
Hong Kong, 14:46 UTC

Relation to other eclipses

Eclipses of 2009

An annular solar eclipse on 26 January.
A penumbral lunar eclipse on 9 February.
A penumbral lunar eclipse on 7 July.
A total solar eclipse on 22 July.
A penumbral lunar eclipse on 6 August.
A partial lunar eclipse on 31 December.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2006–2009
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros # and photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros # and photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
113	2006 Mar 14	penumbral	1.0211	118	2006 Sep 7	partial	−0.9262
123	2007 Mar 03	total	0.3175	128	2007 Aug 28	total	−0.2146
133	2008 Feb 21	total	−0.3992	138	2008 Aug 16	partial	0.5646
143	2009 Feb 09	penumbral	−1.0640	148	2009 Aug 06	penumbral	1.3572

Last set	2005 Apr 24			Last set	2005 Oct 17

Next set	2009 Dec 31			Next set	2009 Jul 07

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[3] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 150.