A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the MoonâÂÂs ascending node of orbit on Friday, July 16, 1954, with an umbral magnitude of 0.4054. 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.6 days after apogee (on July 9, 1954, at 9:25 UTC) and 7.8 days before perigee (on July 23, 1954, at 19:30 UTC).
The eclipse was completely visible over eastern South America, Africa, Europe, and Antarctica, seen rising over northwestern South America and much of central and eastern North America and setting over eastern Europe, the western half of Asia, and western Australia.
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 145.