May 16 Total Lunar Eclipse Is First of Two 2022 Total Lunar Eclipses

Summary: The May 16 total lunar eclipse is the first of two 2022 total lunar eclipses and the second eclipse in the year's lineup of four eclipses.

Monday, May 16, 2022, total 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 May 16 total lunar eclipse is the first of two 2022 total lunar eclipses and the second eclipse in the year's four-eclipse lineup of two partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses.

Continentally, the Monday, May 16, total lunar eclipse favors South America, much of Antarctica and parts of North America with all eclipse visibility, according to the NASA Eclipse Web Site. Much of eastern Canada and much of the central and eastern United States experience all eclipse visibility.

Oceanically, the Monday, May 16, total lunar eclipse favors parts of three of Earth's five oceans with all eclipse visibility. All eclipse visibility is available to much of the southeastern Pacific Ocean and a small portion of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Much of the western and central Atlantic Ocean and most of the Southern Ocean are eligible for all eclipse visibility.

Varying amounts of incomplete visibility are available to Africa as well as to a small part of East Antarctica and to much of Africa, western Europe and North America (including southern Greenland). A portion of East Antarctica's portion of the Southern Ocean joins the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the western Indian Ocean and the central and southwestern Pacific Ocean in eligibility for varying amounts of incomplete visibility.

Australia and most of Asia are excluded from eclipse visibility.

May's total lunar eclipse starts with a penumbral eclipse (P1), in which first exterior contact occurs between the moon and Earth's penumbra, the fainter, outer region of Earth's shadow. The penumbral eclipse begins Monday, May 16, 01:32:07 Universal Time (Sunday, May 15, at 9:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

First exterior contact between the moon and Earth's umbra (U1), the dark, inner portion of Earth's shadow, initiates the event's partial umbral eclipse. The partial umbral eclipse begins 02:27:53 UT (10:27 p.m. EDT, Sunday, May 15).

The event's total lunar eclipse commences with first interior contact between the moon and Earth's umbra (U2). The Monday, May 16, total lunar eclipse begins at 03:29:03 UT (11:29 p.m. EDT, Sunday, May 15).

The instant of greatest eclipse designates the instant of the moon's closest passage to the umbra's axis and represents the eclipse's maximum phase. The Monday, May 16, event achieves its greatest eclipse instant at 04:11:28.8 UT (12:11 a.m. EDT, Monday, May 16).

The total lunar eclipse ends with the last exterior contact between the moon and Earth's umbra (U3). The Monday, May 16, total lunar eclipse terminates at 04:53:56 UT (12:53 a.m. EDT, Monday, May 16).

The partial umbral eclipse ends with the last exterior contact between the moon and Earth's umbra (U4). The partial umbral eclipse terminates Monday, May 16, at 05:55:07 UT (1:55 a.m. EDT).

The penumbral eclipse closes with the last exterior contact between the moon and Earth's penumbra (P4). The event's penumbral eclipses end Monday, May 16, at 06:50:48 UT (2:50 a.m. EDT).

The NASA Eclipse Web Site provides eclipse durations calculated by NASA astrophysicist, now retired, Fred Espenak. The Monday, May 16, lunar event's penumbral eclipse endured for 05 hours 18 minutes 40 seconds. The event's partial umbral eclipse lasted for 03 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds. The event's total umbral eclipse had a duration of 01 hour 24 minutes 53 seconds.

On his EclipseWise website, Fred Espenak notes the moon's placement in Libra the Balance constellation during the Monday, May 16, lunar eclipse. The southern celestial hemisphere constellation neighbors with Virgo the Maiden constellation to the west and Scorpius the Scorpion to the east.

Espenak's EclipseWise also points out that the Monday, May 16, event's instant of greatest eclipse precedes lunar perigee, or closest center-to-center distance between Earth and its moon, by 1.5 days. The month's lunar perigee takes place Tuesday, May 17, at 15:24 UTC (11:24 a.m. EDT), at a distance of 360,297 kilometers, according to computer programmer and computer-aided design (CAD) software company Autodesk co-founder John Walker's Fourmilab Switzerland website.

The Monday, May 16, total lunar eclipse sequences as the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2022 and as the second of the year's four eclipses. The year's second total lunar eclipse takes place Tuesday, Nov. 8, as the year's fourth, closing eclipse. A partial solar eclipse opened the 2022 lineup Saturday, April 30, as the year's first eclipse and as the first of the year's two partial solar eclipses. The year's second partial solar eclipse intervenes on Tuesday, Oct. 25, between the year's two total lunar eclipses.

The takeaways for the May 16 total lunar eclipse as the first of two 2022 total lunar eclipses are that May's lunar eclipse favors only one continent, South America, with all eclipse visibility; that May's lunar eclipse offers varying degrees of incomplete visibility to Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe and North America; that May's lunar eclipse excludes Australia from eclipse visibility; that the May total lunar eclipse succeeds April's partial solar eclipse, the year's eclipse lineup opener, and precedes the year's second partial solar eclipse; and that year's second total lunar eclipse closes the year's eclipse lineup in early November.

Earth's orientation, as viewed from the moon's center during the Monday, May 16, 2022, total lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse: SockPuppetForTomruen at English Wikipedia, 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

Monday, May 16, 2022, total 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/LE2022May16T.pdf

Earth's orientation, as viewed from the moon's center during the Monday, May 16, 2022, total lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse: SockPuppetForTomruen at English Wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_eclipse_from_moon-2022May16.png

For further information:

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

Espenak, Fred. "Total Lunar Eclipse of 2022 May 16." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: 2021-2030.
Available @ http://eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEprime/2001-2100/LE2022May16Tprime.html

Espenak, Fred. "Total Lunar Eclipse of 2022 May 16." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Decade Long Tables of Past and Future Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: 2021-2030.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2022May16T.pdf

Espenak, Fred; and Jean Meeus. "Explanation of Lunar Eclipse Figures." NASA Eclipse Web Site.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/figure.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

Time and Date. "May 15–16, 2022 Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2022-may-16

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