Monday, March 25, Penumbral Eclipse Is First of Four 2024 Eclipses

Summary: The Monday, March 25, penumbral eclipse is first in the lineup of four 2024 eclipses, first of two 2024 lunar eclipses and is visible in the Americas.

Earth's orientation, as viewed from the moon's center during the Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse: SockPuppetForTomruen at English Wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Monday, March 25, penumbral eclipse is the first of four 2024 eclipses and the first of two 2024 lunar eclipses and offers visibility from the Americas.

March's lunar eclipse has an expected duration of 4 hours, 39 minutes and 52 seconds, according to retired NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) astrophysicist Fred Espenak's eclipse predictions on his EclipseWise website. The year's first eclipse begins Monday, March 25, at 4:53:09 Coordinated Universal Time UTC (Sunday, March 24, at 6:53:09 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time HST; Monday, March 25, at 12:53:09 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time EDT and at 1:53:09 a.m. Chile Summer Time CLST). March's penumbral eclipse finishes Monday, March 25, at 09:33:01 UTC (Sunday, March 24, at 11:33 p.m. HST; Monday, March 25, at 5:33 a.m. EDT and at 6:33 a.m. CLST).

During a lunar eclipse, as the lunar disk passes into and out of Earth's penumbra (Latin: penumbra, from paene, "almost, nearly" + umbra, "shadow"), or the shadow's lighter, outer portion, the start and finish are undetectable by the naked eye, reminds Espenak. Shading becomes visible with immersion of about two-thirds of the lunar disk in the penumbra. Accordingly, shading would be detectable, dependent upon atmospheric conditions and the observer's visual acuity, at about 06:25 UTC (Sunday, March 24, at 8:25 p.m. HST; Monday, March 25, at 2:25 a.m. EDT and at 3:25 a.m. CLST).

The March lunar event's greatest eclipse occurs at 07:12:51 UTC (Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 9:12 p.m. HST; Monday, March 24, at 3:12 a.m. EDT and at 4:12 a.m. CLST). A lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse records the instant of the event's reach of a minimal distance between the moon and Earth's shadow axis, explains Espenak. A point in the East Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometers west of the Galapagos Islands (Spanish: islas Galápagos) qualifies for the greatest eclipse's zenithal lunar placement.

Greatest eclipse occurs 1.6 days after the moon's reach of March's apogee (Ancient Greek: ἀπόγειον, apogeion, “away from Earth”; from ἀπό, apo, “away” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”). Apogee references the farthest center-to-center distance between Earth and the moon. The moon achieved the month's apogee on Saturday, March 23, at 15:44 Greenwich Mean Time / Coordinated Universal Time (Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 5:44 a.m. HST, at 11:44 a.m. EDT and at 12:44 p.m. CLST), according to Espenak's AstroPixels website. The apogean distance measured 406,292 kilometers.

The Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral lunar eclipse favors North America and South America. No portion of the Americas is excluded from the event's visibility region.

Portions of Earth's six other continents receive varying amounts of visibility. Western Africa, East and Northeast Asia, Central and Eastern Australia and much of Antarctica and Europe fall within the varying visibility zone.

March's penumbral lunar eclipse extends varying degrees of visibility to all five of Earth's oceans. Only a small portion of the southeastern Atlantic Ocean eludes visibility. Except for the Western Pacific's marginal seas, the Pacific Ocean mostly experiences varying eclipse visibilities.

The Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral eclipse opens the 2024 eclipse lineup of four eclipses. March's lunar eclipse numbers as the first of the year's two lunar eclipses. The second lunar eclipse occurs as a partial lunar eclipse Wednesday, Sep. 18. March's penumbral eclipse finds the moon in Virgo the Maiden constellation. September's partial lunar eclipse will occur with the moon in Pisces the Fishes.

The year's second eclipse takes place as a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8. April's solar eclipse numbers as the first of two solar eclipses in 2024. The year's second solar eclipse occurs Wednesday, Oct. 2, as an annular eclipse. The October solar eclipse sequences as the fourth and last eclipse in 2024.

Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral lunar eclipse details: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC)," via NASA Eclipse Web Site

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Earth's orientation, as viewed from the moon's center during the Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral lunar eclipse's greatest eclipse: SockPuppetForTomruen at English Wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_eclipse_from_moon-2024Mar25.png

Monday, March 25, 2024, penumbral lunar eclipse details: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC)," via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2024Mar25N.pdf

For further information:

Espenak, Fred. "Eclipses During 2024." EclipseWise > Lunar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Lunar Eclipses > Observer's Handbook -- Eclipses During the Year (a detailed look at every eclipse in a given year) > 2024.
Available via EclipseWise @ https://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/ec2024.html

Espenak, Fred. "Lunar Eclipses: 2021-2030." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future > Decade long tables of past and future lunar eclipses include links to dates, diagrams, maps and details > 2021-2030.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEdecade/LEdecade2021.html

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Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2024Mar25N.pdf

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