Sept. 15, 1875, Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Was Second 1875 Lunar Eclipse

Summary: The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse was the second 1875 lunar eclipse and barely preceded the month's Indianola, Texas, hurricane.

graphic of Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA's GSFC)," via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse was the second 1875 lunar eclipse, was third in the year's five-eclipse lineup and was notable for barely preceding the year's third Atlantic storm system's devastating landfall at Matagorda Bay's Indianola in southeastern Texas.

A penumbral lunar eclipse begins with first exterior contact between the lunar disk's leading limb and Earth's outer and lighter penumbra, designated as P1. The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse's first lunar-penumbral contact occurred at 12:11:01.6 Universal Time 1 (7:11 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.

The zenith latitude and longitude at the eclipse's start were 4 degrees 34.4 minutes south latitude, 176 degrees 23.0 minutes east longitude. The geographic coordinates are located in the western South Pacific Ocean, southwest of Kiribati's Arorae atoll and northeast of Tuvalu's Lakina Islet. Zenith latitude and zenith longitude reference the coordinates for the moon's zenith, or overhead, appearance.

Greatest eclipse references the instant of closest passage of the lunar disk's center to the axis of Earth’s shadow cone. The September 1875 penumbral lunar eclipse experienced greatest eclipse at 12:57:32.9 UT1 (7:57 a.m. EST).

The zenith latitude and zenith longitude at greatest eclipse were 4 degrees 21.6 minutes south latitude, 165 degrees 07.1 minutes east longitude. The geographic coordinates are located in the Melanesian subregion of the western South Pacific Ocean, northeast of the Solomon Islands archipelago's Santa Isabel Island and southwest of Nauru.

At greatest eclipse, the sun's geocentric coordinates were right ascension of 11 hours 31 minutes 32.0 seconds and declination of plus 3 degrees 4 arcminutes 37.9 arcseconds. The moon's geocentric coordinates were right ascension of 23 hours 34 minutes 21.0 seconds and declination of minus 4 degrees 21 arcminutes 34.9 arcseconds.

A penumbral lunar eclipse ends with last exterior contact between the lunar disk's following limb and Earth's penumbra, designated as P4. The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse's last lunar-penumbral contact took place at 13:44:22.0 UT1 (8:44 a.m. EST).

The zenith latitude and zenith longitude at the penumbral lunar eclipse's end were 4 degrees 08.6 minutes south latitude, 153 degrees 47.0 minutes east longitude. The geographic coordinates are located in the New Guinea Islands Region's Bismarck Archipelago in the western South Pacific Ocean. The zenith point is found south-southeast of Feni Islands and northwest of Pinipel Island.

EclipseWise gives lunar details of the moon's location in Pisces the Fishes constellation and of reach of lunar perigee 3.6 days after the September 1875 penumbral lunar eclipse. Perigee (Ancient Greek: περί, perí, “near” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”), closest center-to-center distance between Earth and its moon, took place Sunday, Sept. 19, at 2:11 Universal Coordinated Time (Saturday, Sept. 18, at 9:11 p.m. EST), at a distance of 366,956 kilometers, according to Autodesk Inc. co-founder John Walker's Fourmilab Switzerland website.

The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse lasted for 1 hour 33 minutes 20.3 seconds. The eclipse's entire visibility region favored the Pacific Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean. Continentally, the eclipse's entire visibility favored Australia, east Asia, parts of Antarctica and North America's then-U.S. Department of Alaska and a slice of northwestern Canada. The Atlantic Ocean, Africa, Europe and South America were excluded from eclipse visibility.

The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse occurred as the second of the year's three penumbral lunar eclipses. The year's first penumbral lunar eclipse took place Tuesday, April 20, and the year's third penumbral lunar eclipse took place Thursday, Oct. 14. October's penumbral lunar eclipse closed the year's eclipse lineup as the third of three penumbral lunar eclipses and as the year's fifth and last eclipse.

Three solar eclipses joined the year's three penumbral lunar eclipses for a lineup of five eclipses in 1875. The first solar eclipse occurred Tuesday, April 6, as a total solar eclipse and opened the year's eclipse lineup. The second solar eclipse took place Wednesday, Sept. 29, as an annular solar eclipse and, as fourth in the five-eclipse lineup, intervened between the September and October penumbral lunar eclipses.

The Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse barely preceded the 1875 Indianola hurricane in southeastern Texas. Texas Historical Marker 2642, erected in 1963 at the eastern terminus of State Highway (SH) 316, at Indianola Beach on the Gulf of Mexico's Matagorda Bay, describes Indianola as "partially destroyed" by the 1875 hurricane.

The storm began, with hurricane intensity, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1875, east-northeast of Barbados in the western North Atlantic Ocean, at approximately 14 degrees north latitude, 55 degrees west longitude, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce National Weather Service North Atlantic Hurricane Tracking Chart for 1875. The year's third Atlantic storm system briefly dropped to a tropical storm after leaving northwestern Cuba near Havana on Monday, Sept. 13, but powered to hurricane status Tuesday, Sept. 14, in the Gulf of Mexico. The system roared to major hurricane (MH) status as a Category 3 in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico Thursday, Sept. 16, and made landfall at Indianola. In the National Geographic's December 1900 issue, U.S. Army General Adolphus Washington Greely (March 27, 1844-Oct. 20, 1935) recalled U.S. Signal Corps Sergeant C.A. Smith's placement of the death toll at ". . . nearly one-fifth of the entire population . . ." and property damage in excess of one million dollars, with complete disappearance of ". . . three-fourths of all the buildings . . ." (pages 442, 445). The East Shoal and West Shoal lighthouses were carried out to sea, and approximately 1,500 head of cattle and sheep drowned. General Greely's visit six months after the hurricane found "evidence of one of the greatest storms of the century" (page 442). During its northeastward turn from Indianola, the system reverted to a tropical storm Friday, Sept. 17, and dissipated Saturday, Sept. 18, over southwestern Mississippi near Louisiana's central eastern border.

The takeaways for the Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse are that the lunar event numbered as the second of the year's three penumbral lunar eclipses and as third in the year's lineup of five eclipses; that the event's greatest eclipse took place in the western South Pacific Ocean; that visibility favored the Pacific Ocean, Australia, eastern Asia, part of Antarctica and the then-U.S. District of Alaska; that visibility disfavored the continents of Africa, Europe and South America; and that the September 1875 penumbral lunar eclipse took place during the 1875 Indianola hurricane that devastated the southeastern port on the Gulf of Mexico's Matagorda Bay.

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 Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1875, penumbral lunar eclipse: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA's GSFC)," via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1801-1900/LE1875-09-15N.gif

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) @ https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/1875.html

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/LE1875-09-15N.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/LE1875-09-15N.gif

Espenak, Fred. "Penumbral Lunar Eclipse of 1875 Sep 15." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Links > Six Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses > 1801-1900.
Available @ https://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/1801-1900/LE1875Sep15Nprime.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

Go Barbados. "Where is Barbados?" Go Babados > About.
Available @ https://barbados.org/where-is-barbados.htm#.YILhLaYpBYA

Greely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington). "Hurricanes On The Coast Of Texas." National Geographic. XI, no. 11 (November 1900): 442–445.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.com/books?id=9g4OAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA443

Marriner, Derdriu. "Aug. 14, 1886, Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Belonged to Saros Cycle 107." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/08/aug-14-1886-penumbral-lunar-eclipse.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Aug. 14, 1886, Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Was Third 1886 Lunar Eclipse." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/08/aug-14-1886-penumbral-lunar-eclipse-was.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/

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

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