February 1951 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse took place on February 21, 1951. This was 6.4 days after the Moon reached apogee.^[1]

Grazing penumbral eclipse

The magnitude of the eclipse was 0.007 or a miss depending on definitions of the penumbral shadow is defined. Bao-Lin Lui's Canon of lunar eclipses list it as the last eclipse of a saros cycle, with magnitude 0.007, while NASA lists February 10, 1933, as the final series event, with this one missing the shadow.^[2]

As seen from the lunar south pole the sun missing the sphere of the earth, excluding the atmosphere.

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1951–1955
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
103	1951 Feb 21	Penumbral	108	1951 Aug 17	Penumbral
113	1952 Feb 11	Partial	118	1952 Aug 5	Partial
123	1953 Jan 29	Total	128	1953 Jul 26	Total
133	1954 Jan 19	Total	138	1954 Jul 16	Partial
143	1955 Jan 8	Penumbral

Last set	1951 Mar 23		Last set	1951 Sep 15

Next set	1955 Nov 29		Next set	1955 Jun 5

Metonic cycle (19 years)

This is the third of five Metonic lunar eclipses.

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 in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

Metonic lunar eclipse sets 1951–2027
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date	Type	Saros	Date	Type
103	1951 Feb 21.88	Penumbral	108	1951 Aug 17.13	Penumbral

113	1970 Feb 21.35	Partial	118	1970 Aug 17.14	Partial

123	1989 Feb 20.64	Total	128	1989 Aug 17.13	Total

133	2008 Feb 21.14	Total	138	2008 Aug 16.88	Partial

143	2027 Feb 20.96	Penumbral	148	2027 Aug 17.30	Penumbral