A total lunar eclipse occurred at the MoonâÂÂs ascending node of orbit on Saturday, August 13, 1859, with an umbral magnitude of 1.8148. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. 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. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Occurring about 1.1 days after apogee (on August 12, 1859, at 17:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
Totality for this eclipse lasted 106 minutes and 28 seconds, the longest duration since May 3, 459 (106 minutes and 32 seconds). A totality of this length will not occur again until August 19, 4753 (106 minutes and 35 seconds). During the totality of this eclipse, the moon was in the constellation of Capricornus.
The eclipse was completely visible over the eastern half of Asia, Australia, and Antarctica, seen rising over west and central Asia, Africa, and Europe and setting over northeast Asia and the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
This eclipse was 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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
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 April 9, 1857 and October 3, 1857 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the lunar eclipses on December 28, 1860 (penumbral), June 22, 1861 (penumbral), and December 17, 1861 (partial) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.