Penumbral lunar eclipse of November 30, 2020
Featured image: Visibility of penumbral lunar eclipse on November 30, 2020. Credit: In The Sky/Dominic Ford
A penumbral lunar eclipse will take place on November 30, 2020, and be visible from Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and the Americas. This lunar eclipse is followed two weeks later by a total solar eclipse on December 14, 2020.
The instant of greatest eclipse will take place at 09:32 UTC on November 30. This is 3.4 days after the Moon reaches apogee. The eclipse will begin at 07:32 UTC and end at 11:53 UTC.
During the eclipse, the Moon will be in the constellation Tauris. The synodic month in which the eclipse takes place has a Brown Lunation Number of 1211, according to NASA's eclipse expert Fred Espenak.
The eclipse belongs to Saros 116 and is number 58 of 73 eclipses in the series.
All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node.
The Moon moves southward with respect to the node with each succeeding eclipse in the series and gamma decreases.
Image credit: In The Sky/Dominic Ford
This is the last of 4 lunar eclipses (all penumbral) in 2020.
The next lunar eclipse will take place on May 26, 2021 — it will be a total lunar eclipse visible from eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and the Americas. In 2021, observers in Europe will see a partial lunar eclipse on November 19 — the second and last lunar eclipse of 2021.
During penumbral lunar eclipses, the Moon passes through Earth's penumbral shadow. These pale eclipses are faint and hard to see and are mostly of academic interest.
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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