Friday, Nov. 19, Partial Lunar Eclipse Is Second 2021 Lunar Eclipse

Summary: The Friday, Nov. 19, partial lunar eclipse is the second 2021 lunar eclipse and is fully visible for most of the Pacific Ocean and North America.

Friday, Nov. 19, partial lunar eclipse details; credit: Eclipse map/figure/table/predictions courtesy of Fred Espenak, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, from eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov: No copyright, via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The Friday, Nov. 19, partial lunar eclipse is the second 2021 lunar eclipse and is a Pacific Ocean event that favors most of North America with all-eclipse visibility.

November's lunar eclipse has an expected duration of 6 hours 1 minute 29 seconds, according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) astrophysicist, now retired, Fred Espenak's eclipse predictions on the NASA Eclipse Web Site. The year's second of two lunar eclipses begins Friday, Nov. 19, at 06:02:09 Universal Time (1:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). November's lunar eclipse ends Friday, Nov. 19, at 12:03:38 UT (7:03 a.m. EST).

The moon, which is in a lunar eclipse's requisite full phase, reaches apogee 1.7 days after November's lunar eclipse, according to retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak's EclipseWise website. Apogee (Ancient Greek: ἀπόγειον, apógeion, “away from Earth” + ἀπό, apó, “away” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”) references the farthest center-to-center distance between Earth and the moon. The month's apogee takes place Sunday, Nov. 21, at 02:14 Greenwich Mean Time (Saturday, Nov. 20, at 9:14 p.m. EST), at a distance of 406,276 kilometers, according to Espenak's AstroPixels website.

All-eclipse visibility favors much of the Pacific Ocean and North America. Of the 50 states in the United States, all-eclipse visibility reaches Alaska; Hawaii; the western and central states; and most of the eastern states. Canada and Greenland mostly experience all-eclipse visibility. Mexico and Central America's Belize and Guatemala enjoy all-eclipse visibility. Moonset during the ending penumbral phase prevents complete visibility for portions of eastern Quebec and Atlantic Canada; for southern Greenland; and for portions of the Eastern Seaboard in the United States.

All-eclipse visibility also exends to the Arctic, including Norway's Svalbard archipelago and Northern Russia's Arctic islands and archipelagos. Also, all-eclipse visibility is available to northern portions of Russia's Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts.

Time and Date website indicates varying visibilities for northwestern Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America. Varying visibility is also available oceanically for the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Graphic artist Larry Koehn's Shadow and Substance website details the northernmost Antarctic Peninsula as the only part of the icy continent that participates in November's lunar eclipse. Moonset's occurrence in the penumbral phase prevents visibility of the partial phase at mainland Antarctica's northernmost points.

First exterior contact between Earth's penumbra (shadow's lighter, outer region) and the lunar surface initiates the lunar event's penumbral eclipse. This first exterior penumbral contact takes place at 06:02:09 UT (1:02 a.m. EST).

The lunar event's partial eclipse commences with the first exterior contact between Earth's umbra (shadow's darker, inner region) and the lunar surface. This first exterior umbral contact occurs at 07:18:41 UT (2:18 a.m. EST).

Greatest eclipse describes the instant of the closest lunar passage to the axis of Earth's shadow cone. This instant takes place at 09:04:05.7 UT (4:04 a.m. EST).

At greatest eclipse, the moon registers geocentric coordinates of right ascension at 3 hours 40 minutes 24.8 seconds and declination at plus 19 degrees 9 arcminutes 15.5 arcseconds. The sun's geocentric coordinates are calculated at right ascension of 15 hours 39 minutes 50.9 seconds, declination of minus 19 degrees 32 arcminutes 33.1 arcseconds.

The last exterior contact between Earth's umbra and the lunar surface terminates the lunar event's partial eclipse. This last exterior umbral contact happens at 10:47:04 UT (5:47 a.m. EST).

The lunar event's penumbral eclipse stops with the last exterior contact between Earth's penumbra and the lunar surface. This last exerior penumbral contact takes place at 12:03:38 UT (7:03 a.m. EST).

The November lunar event's penumbral eclipse has a duration of 6 hours 1 minute 29 seconds. The November event's partial eclipse lasts for 3 hours 28 minutes 23 seconds.

The Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, partial lunar eclipse occurs as the second of the year's two lunar eclipses. The year's first lunar eclipse appeared Wednesday, May 26, as a total lunar eclipse. During the May eclipse the moon was in the constellation of Scorpius the Scorpion while the November partial lunar eclipse places the moon in Taurus the Bull constellation, according to Fred Espenak's EclipseWise website.

A solar eclipse characteristically intervened between the year's two lunar eclipses. The annular solar eclipse of Thursday, June 10, appeared as the year's first solar eclipse and as the 2021 lineup's second of four eclipses.

Fifteen days after November's lunar eclipse the year's second solar eclipse appears. The total solar eclipse of Saturday, Dec. 4, closes the 2021 lineup of two lunar and two solar eclipses.

The takeaways for the Friday, Nov. 19, partial lunar eclipse are that the event numbers as the second of 2021's two lunar eclipses; that the event's all-eclipse visibility panorama favors the Pacific Ocean and North America; and that, as third in 2021's lineup of four eclipses, November's partial lunar eclipse precedes the year's closing eclipse, the Saturday, Dec. 4, total solar eclipse.

partial lunar eclipse Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, as viewed from center of moon during the greatest eclipse; March 26, 2009: 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:

Friday, Nov. 19, partial lunar eclipse details; credit: Eclipse map/figure/table/predictions courtesy of Fred Espenak, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, from eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov: No copyright, via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2021Nov19P.pdf

partial lunar eclipse Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, as viewed from center of moon during the greatest eclipse; March 26, 2009: Tom Ruen (SockPuppetForTomruen), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_eclipse_from_moon-2021Nov19.png

For further information:

Espenak, Fred. "Key to Figures of Lunar Eclipses." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses.
Available @ http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEhelp/LEpingkey.html

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 @ http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/moon/moonperap2001.html

Espenak, Fred. "Partial Lunar Eclipse of 2021 Nov 19." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Preview: 2018 through 2030.
Available @ http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2021Nov19Pprime.html

Espenak, Fred. "Partial Lunar Eclipse of 2021 Nov 19." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future > Decade Long Tables of Past and Future Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: 2021 - 2030.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2021Nov19P.pdf

Koehn, Larry. "Partial Eclipse of the Moon on November 19, 2021." Shadow and Substance. Nov. 15, 2020.
Available @ https://www.shadowandsubstance.com/2020/11/15/partial-eclipse-of-the-moon-on-november-18-19-2021/

Marriner, Derdriu. "May 26, 2021, Total Lunar Eclipse Belongs to Saros Cycle 121." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 26, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/may-26-2021-total-lunar-eclipse-belongs.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "May 26 Total Lunar Eclipse Is First of Two 2021 Lunar Eclipses." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 19, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/may-26-total-lunar-eclipse-is-first-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Thursday, June 10, Annular Solar Eclipse Belongs to Saros Series 147." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 9, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/thursday-june-10-annular-solar-eclipse_01795210254.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Thursday, June 10, Annular Solar Eclipse Is First 2021 Solar Eclipse." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/thursday-june-10-annular-solar-eclipse.html

Time and Date. "November 18–19, 2021 Partial Lunar Eclipse." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2021-november-19

Time and Date. "Time Zone Converter – Time Difference Calculator (Classic)." Time and Date > Time Zones.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html