A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the MoonâÂÂs descending node of orbit on Saturday, February 21, 1970, with an umbral magnitude of 0.0464. 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 about 2.4 days after apogee (on February 18, 1970, at 23:05 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
The eclipse was completely visible over northeast Asia, North America, and northwestern South America, seen rising over east Asia and Australia and setting over much of South America, western Europe, and west Africa.
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar 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 120.