Monday, Nov. 30, Lunar Eclipse Is Fourth 2020 Penumbral Eclipse

Summary: The Monday, Nov. 30, lunar eclipse is the fourth 2020 penumbral eclipse and precedes the year’s last eclipse, a total solar eclipse.

penumbral lunar eclipse Monday, Nov. 30, details: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment, Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA GSFC Emeritus," via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The Monday, Nov. 30, lunar eclipse is the fourth 2020 penumbral eclipse, closes the year’s penumbral quartet and precedes the year’s sixth and last eclipse, a total solar eclipse in December.

NASA’s Eclipse Web Site calculates the duration of November’s penumbral lunar eclipse at 4 hours 20 minutes 59 seconds. The month’s lunar eclipse begins at 07:32:21 Universal Time (2:32 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) and finishes at 11:53:20 UT (6:53 a.m. EST).

Five of Earth’s seven continents are eligible for all or some visibility of November’s penumbral lunar eclipse. Africa and Antarctica are the only two continents completely excluded from the eclipse’s viewing path.

All or some portions of the eclipse are available to all or some parts of the five continents in the viewing path. All of the eclipse is visible to most of North America. All of the 50 U.S. states have all-eclipse visibility. North America’s areas with some visibility encompass a swath arching from Nicaragua northward through Greenland’s southern tip. Most of Canada enjoys all-eclipse visibility, except for slices of the Maritime Provinces and of the easternmost province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Most of Europe lacks eclipse visibility. Chunks of the western Iberian Peninsula and of northwestern France join most of the Fennoscandian Peninsula in experiencing some eclipse visibility. (Far northwestern Europe’s geographical peninsula of Fennoscandia comprises the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, and Russia’s Republic of Karelia and Kola Peninsula.)

The eclipse’s trajectory across Asia allows for variable visibility. The path affords all or some visibility to most of Asia. Western Asia and parts of Central and South Asia are deprived of eclipse visibility.

The Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere claim one continent with some, but not complete, visibility of November’s penumbral lunar eclipse. The eclipse’s path affords incomplete visibility to all of Australia and of South America.

Earth’s five oceans lie within the areas of all, some or no visibility. The Southern Ocean mostly lies outside of the eclipse’s visibility path. Much of the Indian Ocean and of the South Atlantic Ocean also lack visibility of November’s lunar eclipse.

NASA’s Eclipse Web Site sets the instant of the lunar eclipse’s greatest eclipse at 09:42:49.0 UT (4:42 a.m. EST). Greatest eclipse refers to the instant of the moon’s closest passage to the axis of Earth’s shadow. Retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak’s EclipseWise website places the point of greatest eclipse in the North Pacific Ocean, east of the Hawaiian island of Maui. Espenak identifies 20 degrees 44.8 minutes north at 148 degrees 14.9 minutes west as the greatest eclipse’s zenith latitude and longitude.

November’s penumbral lunar eclipse closes the lineup of four lunar eclipses, all penumbral, in 2020. November’s three preceding lunar eclipses took place Friday, Jan. 10; Friday, June 5; and Sunday, July 5.

In 2020, there are six eclipses. The year’s four penumbral eclipses share the eclipse lineup in 2020 with two solar eclipses. The four penumbral lunar eclipses observe a chronological order in the year’s lineup as eclipse numbers one (Jan. 10), two (June 5), four (July 5) and five (Nov. 30).

The first solar eclipse of 2020 occurs as the year’s third eclipse. The solar eclipse takes place Sunday, June 21, as an annular eclipse. It is positioned almost midway between early June’s and early July’s penumbral lunar eclipses.

The second solar eclipse of 2020 closes the year’s eclipse lineup as the sixth and last of six eclipses. The event happens Monday, Dec. 14, as a total solar eclipse. The mid-month solar eclipse follows November’s end-of-the-month lunar eclipse.

Earth’s next perspective of lunar eclipses happens in 2021. The year’s two lunar eclipses take place Wednesday, May 26, and Friday, Nov. 19, as total and partial lunar eclipses, respectively.

The next penumbral lunar eclipse happens Friday, May 5, 2023. Prior to 2020, the most recent penumbral lunar eclipse occurred Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017.

The takeaways for the Monday, Nov. 30, lunar eclipse are that, as the fourth 2020 penumbral eclipse, the event closes the year’s penumbral quartet and that, as number five in the year’s lineup of six eclipses, November’s lunar eclipse precedes the eclipse lineup’s closer, a total solar eclipse in mid-December.

penumbral lunar eclipse Monday, Nov. 30, as viewed from center of moon during the greatest eclipse: Tom Ruen (SockPuppetForTomruen), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

penumbral lunar eclipse Monday, Nov. 30, details: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment, Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA GSFC Emeritus," via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2020Nov30N.pdf

penumbral lunar eclipse Monday, Nov. 30, as viewed from center of moon during the greatest eclipse: Tom Ruen (SockPuppetForTomruen), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_eclipse_from_moon-2020Nov30.png

For further information:

Espenak, Fred. “Moon at Perigee and Apogee: 2001 to 2020 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).” AstroPixels > Planetary Ephemeris Data > Moon > Perigee and Apogee: 2001-2100.
Available via AstroPixels @ http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/moon/moonperap2001.html

Espenak, Fred. “Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2020 Jan 10.” EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses > 2011-2020.
Available via EclipseWise @ http://eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2020Jan10Nprime.html

Espenak, Fred. “Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2020 Jul 05.” EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses > 2011-2020.
Available via EclipseWise @ http://eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2020Jul05Nprime.html

Espenak, Fred. “Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2020 Jun 05.” EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses > 2011-2020.
Available via EclipseWise @ http://eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2020Jun05Nprime.html

Espenak, Fred. “Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2020 Nov 30.” EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses > 2011-2020.
Available via EclipseWise @ http://eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2020Nov30Nprime.html

Espenak, Fred. “Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 2020 Nov 30.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: 2011-2020 > 2020 Nov 30.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2020Nov30N.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. “Friday, Jan. 10, Lunar Eclipse Is First of Four 2020 Penumbral Eclipses.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/friday-jan-10-lunar-eclipse-is-first-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Friday, June 5, Lunar Eclipse Is Second of Four 2020 Penumbral Eclipses.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 27, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/friday-june-5-lunar-eclipse-is-second.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Sunday, June 21, Annular Solar Eclipse Is First 2020 Solar Eclipse." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/sunday-june-21-annular-solar-eclipse-is.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Sunday, July 5, Lunar Eclipse Is Third of Four 2020 Penumbral Eclipses." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 24, 2020.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/06/sunday-july-5-lunar-eclipse-is-third-of.html

Tran, Lina; Rob Garner, ed. “Greatest Eclipse and Greatest Duration: What’s the Difference?” NASA > Feature > Goddard Space Flight Center > 2017 > Eclipses and Transits. Aug. 22, 2017.
Available via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/greatest-eclipse-and-greatest-duration-what-s-the-difference