Partial Lunar Eclipse of June 04

The first lunar eclipse of 2012 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in southern Ophiuchus about 6° northeast of Antares (mv = +1.07). It is best seen from locations in and near the Pacific Ocean (Figure 3). Most of the Americas will experience moonset before the eclipse ends while eastern Asia will miss the beginning of the eclipse because it occurs before moonrise. The Moon's contact times with Earth's shadows are listed below.

                 Penumbral Eclipse Begins:    08:48:09 UT
                 Partial Eclipse Begins:      09:59:53 UT
                 Greatest Eclipse:            11:03:13 UT
                 Partial Eclipse Ends:        12:06:30 UT
                 Penumbral Eclipse Ends:      13:18:17 UT

 

At the instant of greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will reach 0.3705. At that time the Moon will be at the zenith for observers in the South Pacific. In spite of the fact that just a third of the Moon enters the umbral shadow (the Moon's southern limb dips 12.3 arc-minutes into the umbra), the partial phase still lasts over 2 hours. 

Figure 3 shows the path of the Moon through the penumbra and umbra as well as a map of Earth showing the regions of eclipse visibility. New England and eastern Canada will miss the entire eclipse since the event begins after moonset from those regions. Observers in western Canada and the USA will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse. To catch the entire event, one must be located in the Pacific or eastern Australia. 

The table below gives times of each phase of the eclipse for various time zones in North America and Hawaii. 

Partial Lunar Eclipse of 2012 June 04
	Europe	North America					Pacific
Event	GMT	EDT	CDT	MDT	PDT	AKDT	HST
Penumbral Eclipse Begins:	08:48 am	04:48 am	03:48 am	02:48 am	01:48 am	12:48 am	10:48 pm
Partial Eclipse Begins:	10:00 am	06:00 am	05:00 am	04:00 am	03:00 am	02:00 am	12:00 am
Greatest Eclipse:	11:03 am	07:03 am	06:03 am	05:03 am	04:03 am	03:03 am	01:03 am
Partial Eclipse Ends:	12:06 pm	08:06 am	07:06 am	06:06 am	05:06 am	04:06 am	02:06 am
Penumbral Eclipse Ends:	01:18 pm	09:18 am	08:18 am	07:18 am	06:18 am	05:18 am	03:18 am

                    Time Zone Abbreviations

                    GMT  - Greenwich Mean Time
                    EDT  - Eastern Daylight Time (GMT - 4 hours)
                    CDT  - Central Daylight Time (GMT - 5 hours)
                    MDT  - Mountain Daylight Time (GMT - 6 hours)
                    PDT  - Pacific Daylight Time (GMT - 7 hours)
                    AKDT - Alaska Daylight Time (GMT - 8 hours)
                    HST  - Hawaii Standard Time (GMT - 10 hours)

The June 04 partial lunar eclipse belongs to Saros 140, a series of 77 eclipses in the following sequence: 20 penumbral, 8 partial, 28 total, 7 partial, and 14 penumbral lunar eclipses (Espenak and Meeus, 2009). Complete details for the series can be found at:

eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEsaros/LEsaros140.html

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov