A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Sunday, December 20, 2048, with an umbral magnitude of −0.1420. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring only about 13 hours before apogee (on December 20, 2048, at 19:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be smaller.
Visibility The eclipse will be completely visible over North America and much of South America, seen rising over northeast Asia and the western Pacific Ocean and setting over west and central Africa and Europe.
Eclipse details Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
Eclipse season
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.
Related eclipses
Eclipses in 2048 A total lunar eclipse on January 1. An annular solar eclipse on June 11. A partial lunar eclipse on June 26. A total solar eclipse on December 5. A penumbral lunar eclipse on December 20.
Metonic Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 2045 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 8, 2052
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 8, 2041 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 1, 2056
Half-Saros Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 15, 2039 Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 26, 2057
Tritos Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 21, 2038 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 19, 2059
Lunar Saros 145 Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 9, 2030 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 31, 2066
Inex Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 10, 2020 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 29, 2077
Triad Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 19, 1962 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 22, 2135
Lunar eclipses of 2046–2049 This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit. The penumbral lunar eclipses on May 17, 2049 and November 9, 2049 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
Metonic series 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 be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.
Saros 145 This eclipse is a part of Saros series 145, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on August 11, 1832. It contains partial eclipses from February 24, 2157 through June 3, 2319; total eclipses from June 14, 2337 through November 13, 2589; and a second set of partial eclipses from November 25, 2607 through June 21, 2950. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on September 16, 3094. The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 34 at 104 minutes, 21 seconds on August 7, 2427. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.
Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
Tritos series This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
Inex series This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
Half-Saros cycle A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 152.
See also List of lunar eclipses and List of 21st-century lunar eclipses
Notes
External links 2048 Dec 20 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC