Aug. 14, 1886, Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Was Third 1886 Lunar Eclipse

Summary: The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse was third 1886 lunar eclipse and second penumbral eclipse preceding an Indianola hurricane.

graphic of Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC), via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse was the third 1886 lunar eclipse, the fourth of the year's six eclipses and the second penumbral lunar eclipse to precede a devastating hurricane in Indianola, southeast Texas.

Designated as P1, first exterior contact between the lunar disk's leading limb and Earth's outer, lighter penumbra initiates a penumbral lunar eclipse. The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse's first lunar-penumbral contact registered at 18:07:45.5 Universal Time 1 (1:07 a.m. Eastern Standard Time), according to eclipse predictions by retired NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) astrophysicist Fred Espenak and Belgian mathematical astronomer Jean Meeus on Espenak's EclipseWise website.

Zenith latitude and zenith longitude indicate the coordinates for the moon's zenith, or overhead, appearance. The zenith latitude and zenith longitude at the eclipse's start were 12 degrees 56.6 minutes south latitude, 88 degrees 34.5 minutes east longitude. The geographic coordinates designate the South Indian Ocean, northeast of Mauritius, southeast of the Maldives and west of the Cocos Keeling Islands.

Greatest eclipse pertains to the instant of closest passage of the lunar disk's center to the axis of Earth’s shadow cone. The August 1886 penumbral lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse took place at 18:42:08.5 UT1 (1:42 a.m. EST).

The South Indian Ocean claimed greatest eclipse's zenith latitude and zenith longitude. The geographic coordinates of 12 degrees 52.6 minutes south latitude, 80 degrees 14.3 minutes east longitude placed the location to the northwest of the geographic coordinates for the eclipse start's zenith site.

At greatest eclipse, the sun's geocentric coordinates were right ascension of 9 hours 36 minutes 50.5 seconds and declination of plus 14 degrees 14 arcminutes 07.9 arcseconds. The moon's geocentric coordinates were right ascension of 21 hours 35 minutes 31.4 seconds and declination of minus 12 degrees 52 arcminutes 35.7 arcseconds.

The last exterior contact between the lunar disk's following limb and Earth's penumbra, designated as P4, closes a penumbral lunar eclipse. The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse's last lunar-penumbral contact occurred at 19:16:28.6 UT1 (2:16 a.m. EST).

The eclipse end's zenith coordinates of 12 degrees 48.6 minutes south latitude, 71 degrees 54.8 minutes east longitude identify a South Indian Ocean location to the northwest of greatest eclipse's zenith latitude and longitude. This zenith site lies to the southwest of the Maldives.

EclipseWise provides lunar details of the moon's location in Capricorn the Sea-Goat constellation and of reach of lunar apogee 0.8 days after the August 1886 penumbral lunar eclipse. Apogee (Ancient Greek: ἀπόγειον, apógeion, “away from Earth” + ἀπό, apó, “away” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”), the farthest center-to-center distance between Earth and its moon, took place Sunday, Aug. 15, at 14:01 Coordinated Universal Time (9:01 a.m. EST), at a distance of 406,245 kilometers, according to Autodesk Inc. co-founder John Walker's Fourmilab Switzerland website.

The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse lasted for 1 hour 8 minutes 43.1 seconds. The entire eclipse visibility region favored Australia and the Indian Ocean. Entire eclipse visibility also was available to much of Africa, most of Asia, parts of Europe and most of Antarctica. Oceanically, much of the Southern Ocean, part of the South Atlantic Ocean and a thin strip of the western Pacific Ocean experienced all-eclipse visibility. North America and South America were disfavored with no-eclipse visibility.

The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse occurred as third of the year's four penumbral lunar eclipses and as fourth in the year's six-member lineup of four lunar and two solar eclipses. The penumbral lunar eclipse of Feb. 18, 1886, opened the year's six-member lineup as the first lunar eclipse and as the year's first eclipse. The year's second penumbral lunar eclipse, which took place March 20, succeeded the year's first solar eclipse, the annular eclipse of March 5. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 29 closely followed August's penumbral lunar eclipse. The penumbral lunar eclipse of Sept. 13 closed the year's eclipse lineup as the fourth of four penumbral lunar eclipses and as the year's last eclipse.

The Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse took place two days after the 1886 Indianola hurricane formed, six days before the hurricane's trouncing landfall at Indianola and seven days before the hurricane's dissipation. The hurricane's path fell outside the August 1886 penumbral lunar eclipse's visibility region.

Interestingly, the August 1886 lunar event numbered as the second penumbral lunar eclipse to occur in proximity to a devastating hurricane at Indianola in southeastern Texas. The penumbral lunar eclipse of Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, had happened the day before the 1875 Indianola hurricane made landfall at the busy port on the Gulf of Mexico's Matagorda Bay.

The 1886 Indianola hurricane began as a tropical storm Thursday, Aug. 12, east of Trinidad and Tobago in the western North Atlantic Ocean, at approximately 10 degrees north latitude, 58 degrees west longitude, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce National Weather Service North Atlantic Hurricane Tracking Chart for 1886. The fifth of the year's 12 Atlantic storm systems upgraded to hurricane intensity Friday, Aug. 13, in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, west of Martinique. The system's rise to major hurricane (MH) status in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, Aug. 19, sent battering winds to Indianola prior to landfall on Friday, Aug. 20. The system weakened to tropical storm status on Friday, Aug. 20, during its northwestward swing into central Texas and dissipated Saturday, Aug. 21, near the Texas Panhandle.

Despite inundation by a 15-foot storm surge and a large population exodus, Indianola did not become a ghost town immediately after the Category 4 hurricane's departure, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather forecaster David Mark Roth in his National Weather Service report, Texas Hurricane History (last updated January 2010). The year's eighth storm system's roar through Indianola one month later, on Thursday, Sept. 23, effected Indianola's demise.

The takeaways for the Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse are that the lunar event numbered as the third of the year's four penumbral lunar eclipses and as fourth in the year's lineup of four lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses; that all-visibility favored Australia and the Indian Ocean; that North America and South America were the only continents disfavored with no-eclipse visibility; and that the August 1886 penumbral lunar eclipse, although not visible along the hurricane's path, numbered as the second penumbral lunar eclipse with proximitous occurrence to a devastating hurricane at Indianola, Texas.

U.S. Department of Commerce National Weather Service North Atlantic Hurricane Tracking Chart for 1875 shows 1875 Indianola hurricane as Atlantic Ocean storm system 3, which barreled from the western North Atlantic Ocean east-southeast of Barbados Wednesday, Sept. 8, to devastating landfall Thursday, Sept. 16, at Indianola, southeastern Texas, and dissipated Saturday, Sept. 18, over southwestern Mississippi's border with central eastern Louisiana: National Weather Service, via NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML)

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

graphic of Saturday, Aug. 14, 1886, penumbral lunar eclipse: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC), via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1801-1900/LE1886-08-14N.gif

U.S. Department of Commerce National Weather Service North Atlantic Hurricane Tracking Chart for 1886 shows 1886 Indianola hurricane as Atlantic Ocean storm system 5, which barreled from the western North Atlantic Ocean east-southeast of Barbados Aug. 12, to devastating landfall Thursday, Sept. 16, at Indianola, southeastern Texas, and dissipated Aug. 21, over southwestern Mississippi's border with central eastern Louisiana: National Weather Service, via NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) @ https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/track_maps/1886_base.gif

For further information:

Espenak, Fred. "Catalog of Lunar Eclipses: 1801 to 1900 (1801 CE to 1900 CE)." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Publications Online > Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE).
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LE1801-1900.html

Espenak, Fred. "Catalog of Solar Eclipses: 1801 to 1900 (1801 CE to 1900 CE)." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses > Five Millennium Catolog of Solar Eclipses.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcat5/SE1801-1900.html

Espenak, Fred. "Explanation of Lunar Eclipse Contact Tables." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEhelp/LEcontactskey.html

Espenak, Fred. "Glossary of Lunar Eclipse Terms." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses.
Available @ http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEhelp/LEglossary.html

Espenak, Fred. "Penumbral 1875 Sep 15." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Catalogs > Catalog of Lunar Eclipse Saros Series > Summary of Saros Series 101 to 125 > Saros Series 106.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1801-1900/LE1886-08-14N.gif

Espenak, Fred. "Penumbral 1875 Sep 15." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Publications Online > Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000 (2000 BCE to 3000 CE) > Catalog of Lunar Eclipses: 1801 to 1900 (1801 CE to 1900 CE).
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1801-1900/LE1886-08-14N.gif

Espenak, Fred. "Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 1886 Aug 14." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Links > Six Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses > 1801-1900.
Available @ https://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/1801-1900/LE1886Aug14Nprime.html

Espenak, Fred; and Jean Meeus. "Key to Catalog of Lunar Eclipses." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LEcatkey.html

NOAAHRD. "130th Anniversary of Indianola Hurricane." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division (HRD). Aug. 20, 2016.
Available @ https://noaahrd.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/130th-anniversary-of-indianola-hurricane/

NWS Houston @NWSHouston. "Today is the anniversary of the 1886 'Indianola' hurricane. This hurricane remains the fifth strongest (by pressure) to make landfall in the US and was responsible for the abandonment of the town of Indianola, which was previously destroyed and rebuilt following an 1875 hurricane." Twitter. Aug. 20, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NWSHouston/status/1031568028683657217

Roth, David. Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs MD: National Weather Service, last updated Jan. 17, 2010.
Available @ https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf

Texas Sea Grant @TXSeaGrant. "The 1886 Indianola #Hurricane destroyed the #Texas town on August 20 and was one of the most intense hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Water wave The old town's ruins sit just offshore under 15 feet of water in Matagorda Bay. #HurricaneSeason #HurricaneHistory." Twitter. Aug. 18, 2019.
Available @ https://twitter.com/TXSeaGrant/status/1163133761095163906

Walker, John. "Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator." Fourmilab Switzerland > Earth and Moon Viewer and Solar System Explorer.
Available @ https://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html

Wolff, Linda. Indianola and Matagorda Island, 1837-1887: A Local History and Visitor's Guide for a Lost Seaport and a Barrier Island on the Texas Gulf Coast. Austin TX: Eakin Press, 1999.