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May 25th, 2013 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

This second lunar eclipse of the year 2013 is a penumbral lunar eclipse, the May 25th, 2013 penumbral lunar eclipse. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon is gliding inside the 'penumbra' of the Earth only, instead of the darker 'umbra.' for more about Moon eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial: Moon Eclipses. A penumbral Moon eclipse, generally, is less spectacular than a total or partial one, as the dimming of the Moon may be harder to observe. It's a good show, worth the observation however. That one will be of a academic interest only and about all but impossible to detect, as just 0.5 arc-minutes of the Moon's southern limb will pass into Earth's penumbral shadow

The whole of the eclipse is observable in a area extending from northwestern North America to southern Africa, with southwestern Europe, western Africa and South America also included. A narrow strip of lands extending from Canada to the southern Pacific Ocean will have the observers having the eclipse already encours by moonrise as another narrow strip of lands, from Greeland to eastern South Africa will have the observers see the eclipse interrupted by moonset. From eastern Europe to New Zealand and the central Pacific Ocean, they have no eclipse at all (which is true too for Russia, the Middle East, India, China and Japan)

The eclipse's main data are the following (data as of October 2012, F. Espenak, NASA's GSFC). for more about how to observe a lunar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Moon Eclipse':
- umbral magnitude (fraction of Moon's diameter immersed in the penumbra at greatest): 0.0158
- greatest eclipse: 04:10:00 UT
- eclipse duration (penumbral): 00h33m45s
- eclipse duration (umbral): -
- eclipse contacts (in UT): P1 (penumbral eclipse begins) at 03:53:11, P4 (penumbral eclipse ends) at 04:26:56. No U2 nor U3, neither U1 nor U4 which occur during a total lunar eclipse, or a partial lunar eclipse, respectively only

see a .PDF map for the May 25th, 2013 penumbral lunar eclipse (path of the Moon within the Earth's umbra and map of the visibility of the eclipse worldwide). map courtesy Fred Espenak - NASA's GSFC

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, you may see at Fred Espenak's NASA's eclipse website