A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node on 22 May 1453, with an umbral magnitude of 0.7446. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the rest is in 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.
The eclipse was seen during the Fall of Constantinople (the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire), during the siege that lasted from Thursday, 5 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453, after which the city fell to the Ottomans. The lunar eclipse was considered to be fulfilling a prophecy for the city's demise, which says a blood moon took place during the eclipse.:85
Eclipse details
Below is a chart of various details and parameters of this eclipse.
The eclipse was completely visible over Asia and Oceania, seen rising over Africa and Europe and setting over the Pacific Ocean. The eclipse occurred 5.2 days after perigee.
Eclipse season
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.
This eclipse is a member of a semester series. Eclipses in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeat approximately every 177 days and 4 hours, termed a semester, at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.
This eclipse was a member of Lunar Saros 102, repeating every 18 years 11 days 8 hours at the ascending node of the Moon's orbit, and contained 84 events. The series began with a penumbral eclipse on 5 October 461. It contained partial eclipses from 20 May 840 to 13 July 930, then total eclipses from 23 July 948 to 20 April 1399, and a second set of partial eclipses from 1 May 1417 to 16 July 1543. The final event of the series was a penumbral eclipse on 4 April 1958. The longest duration of totality was produced by member 36 at 104 minutes, 43 seconds, on October 7, 1074.
Greatest
First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1092 Oct 18, lasting 104 minutes, 43 seconds.
A lunar eclipse will always be preceded and followed by two solar eclipses by a period of 9 years and 5.5 days, a half-saros, or sar.:110 This eclipse is related to two hybrid solar eclipses of Solar Saros 109.
17 May 1444
29 May 1462
Notes
12Calculated based on numbers from and eclipses from
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