A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the MoonâÂÂs descending node of orbit on Saturday, August 26, 1961, with an umbral magnitude of 0.9863. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in 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 7.5 hours after perigee (on August 25, 1961, at 19:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
This nearly total lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 137 preceded the first total eclipse on September 6, 1979. It was also the largest partial lunar eclipse since October 28, 1939, making it the second largest partial lunar eclipse of the 20th century.
The eclipse was completely visible over eastern North America, South America, west Africa, western Europe, and Antarctica, seen rising over western and central North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean and setting over much of Europe, central and east Africa, and west and central Asia.
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
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.
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 144.