June 2002 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Monday, June 24, 2002, with an umbral magnitude of −0.791. 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 6.7 days after perigee (on June 19, 2002, at 3:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

The eclipse was completely visible over Africa, Europe, west and central Asia, and Antarctica, seen rising over much of South America and setting over much of east Asia and 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 penumbral lunar eclipse on May 26.
• An annular solar eclipse on June 10.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on June 24.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on November 20.
• A total solar eclipse on December 4.

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 6, 1998

• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 6, 2009

• Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 1, 2011

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1991
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 25, 2013

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 13, 1984
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 5, 2020

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 15, 1973
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 5, 2031

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 24, 1915

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 penumbral lunar eclipses on March 13, 1998 and September 6, 1998 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipses on May 26, 2002 and November 20, 2002 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 149, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on June 13, 1984. It contains partial eclipses from August 29, 2110 through April 5, 2471; total eclipses from April 16, 2489 through September 17, 2741; and a second set of partial eclipses from September 28, 2759 through May 5, 3120. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on July 20, 3246.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 36 at 99 minutes, 18 seconds on July 3, 2615. 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.

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

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 one partial solar eclipse of Solar Saros 156.

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 21st-century lunar eclipses

• Saros cycle 149
• 2002 Jun 24 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC