May 2069 lunar eclipse

Visibility

The eclipse will be visible after sunset over Australia and begin before sunset over far eastern Asia, and be seen in the predawn hours over western North and South America.

The moon will also occult the bright star Alpha Librae as seen from the southern hemisphere a few hours before greatest eclipse.

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar eclipses are related by many different eclipse cycles. The Saros cycle (18 years and 10 days) repeats the most consistently due three coinciding periods, and continue over 70 events (1200+ years). Eclipses are identified by a Saros number and a member index within each series.

The lunar year (354 days) and Metonic cycles (19 years) are short period last only 8 to 10 events. The Metonic cycle is equal to one Saros cycle plus one lunar year, and so the two series progress in parallel.

The Inex cycle (29 years minus 20 days) can last tens of thousands of years, so long that long perturbations in the moon's path must be taken into account for prediction. Also the eclipse qualities are less inconsistent because the moon is at different significantly positions in its elliptical orbit in sequential events. Similarly for the shorter Tritos cycle (10 years and 31 days), repeats less consistently for the same reason.

Lunar year series

This eclipse is the third of four lunar year eclipses occurring at the moon's ascending node.

The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.

Metonic series

The Metonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents a Saros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the earth's shadow will in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.

This series has 9 events centered on May 6th and October 30th: (saros number)

Saros series

Lunar saros series 132, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 12 total lunar eclipses.

There are 11 series events between 1901 and 2100, grouped into threes (called an exeligmos), each column with approximately the same viewing longitude on earth.

Tritos series

The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.

This series produces 20 total eclipses between April 24, 1967 and August 1, 2167, only being partial on November 19, 2021.

Inex series

The inex series repeats eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the Moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, the variation of the Moon in its elliptical orbit at each event causes the actual eclipse time to vary significantly.

All events in this series listed below and more are total lunar eclipses.