A total lunar eclipse will occur at the MoonâÂÂs descending node of orbit on Sunday, October 30, 2050, with an umbral magnitude of 1.0549. 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 1.9 days after perigee (on October 28, 2050, at 5:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger.
This lunar eclipse is the second of a tetrad, with four total lunar eclipses in series, the others being on May 6, 2050; April 26, 2051; and October 19, 2051.
During the eclipse, NGC 877 will be occulted by the Moon over the southeast Pacific Ocean, South America and the Atlantic Ocean. Deep-sky objects are rarely occulted during a total eclipse from any given spot on Earth.
The eclipse will be completely visible over North and South America, west Africa, and western Europe, seen rising over the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and setting over central and east Africa, eastern Europe, and west, central, and south 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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 134.