June 1955 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse took place at the Moon's ascending of the orbit on Sunday, June 5, 1955, with a penumbral eclipse magnitude of 0.62181 (62.181%). A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves through the faint, outer part of Earth's shadow, the penumbra. This type of eclipse is not as dramatic as other types of lunar eclipses and is often mistaken for a regular Full Moon. The Moon shines because its surface reflects the Sun's rays. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and blocks some or all of the Sun's light from reaching the Moon. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon are imperfectly aligned. When this happens, the Earth blocks some of the Sun's light from directly reaching the Moon's surface and covers all or part of the Moon with the outer part of its shadow, also known as the penumbra. Since the penumbra is much fainter than the dark core of the Earth's shadow, the umbra, a penumbral eclipse of the Moon is often difficult to tell apart from a normal Full Moon. Occurring only 0.5 days after apogee (Apogee on June 5, 1955), the moon's apparent diameter was 6.5% smaller than average (1888 arcseconds).^[1]

Visibility

The penumbral eclipse was visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific, seen rising over Africa/western Indian Ocean and setting over the Pacific.

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1955–1958
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart
110	1955 Jun 5	Penumbral	115	1955 Nov 29	Partial
120	1956 May 24	Partial	125	1956 Nov 18	Total
130	1957 May 13	Total	135	1957 Nov 7	Total
140	1958 May 3	Partial	145	1958 Oct 27	Penumbral

Last set	1954 Jul 16		Last set	1955 Jan 8

Next set	1958 Apr 4		Next set	1959 Sep 17

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[2] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 117.