February 1971 lunar eclipse

February 1971 lunar eclipse
Total eclipse
Date	10 February 1971
Gamma	0.27413
Magnitude	1.30819
Saros cycle	123 (50 of 73)
Totality	82 minutes, 11.4 seconds
Partiality	204 minutes, 42.9 seconds
Penumbral	369 minutes, 37.3 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	04:39:52.5
U1	05:52:17.4
U2	07:03:33.4
Greatest	07:44:39.6
U3	08:25:44.8
U4	09:37:00.3
P4	10:49:29.8
	← August 1970 August 1971 →

A total lunar eclipse took place at the Moon's descending node of the orbit on Wednesday, February 10, 1971, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1971. It had an umbral magnitude of 1.30819. The Moon narrowly missed the center of the Earth's shadow due its gamma being >0.2725 at 0.27413 . The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour, 22 minutes and 11.4 seconds, in a deep total eclipse which saw the Moon 30.819% of its diameter inside the Earth's umbral shadow. The visual effect of this depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere, but the Moon may have been stained a deep red colour. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 44 minutes and 42.9 seconds and in total. Occurring only 2.7 days before apogee (Apogee on Saturday, February 13, 1971), the Moon's apparent diameter was 5.9% smaller than average.

Visibility

It was completely visible from North America, rising from Eastern Asia, Australia, and setting over South America, Europe and Africa.

Related eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1969–1973
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
108	1969 Aug 27	Penumbral	−1.54066	113	1970 Feb 21	Partial	0.96198
118	1970 Aug 17	Partial	−0.80534	123	1971 Feb 10	Total	0.27413
128	1971 Aug 06	Total	−0.07944	133	1972 Jan 30	Total	−0.42729
138	1972 Jul 26	Partial	0.71167	143	1973 Jan 18	Penumbral	−1.08446
148	1973 Jul 15	Penumbral	1.51782

Last set	1969 Sep 25			Last set	1969 Apr 02

Next set	1973 Jun 15			Next set	1973 Dec 10

Saros series

Lunar saros series 123, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has 25 total lunar eclipses. The first total lunar eclipse of this series was on July 16, 1628, and last will be on April 4, 2061. The two longest occurrence of this series were on September 20, 1736 and October 1, 1754 when totality lasted 106 minutes.

It last occurred on January 29, 1953 and will next occur on February 20, 1989.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 130.