August 1962 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Wednesday, August 15, 1962, with an umbral magnitude of −0.3615. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring about 1.6 days before perigee (on August 17, 1962, at 9:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

The eclipse was completely visible over much of Africa, eastern Europe, most of Asia, western Australia, and Antarctica, seen rising over eastern South America, western Europe, and west Africa and setting over northeast Asia and eastern Australia.

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

• A total solar eclipse on February 5.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 19.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on July 17.
• An annular solar eclipse on July 31.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 15.

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 27, 1958

• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 25, 1969

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 9, 1953
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 15, 1951
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 15, 1973

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 4, 1944
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 26, 1980

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 4, 1933
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1991

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 14, 1875
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 15, 2049

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The lunar eclipses on May 3, 1958 (partial) and October 28, 1958 (penumbral) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse on July 17, 1962 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 147, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 2, 1890. It contains partial eclipses from September 28, 2034 through May 27, 2431; total eclipses from June 6, 2449 through October 5, 2647; and a second set of partial eclipses from October 16, 2665 through May 1, 2990. The series ends at member 70 as a penumbral eclipse on July 28, 3145.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 37 at 105 minutes, 18 seconds on August 1, 2539. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 154.

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

• 1962 Aug 15 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC