April 1950 lunar eclipse
| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | April 2, 1950 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | −0.4599 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.0329 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 131 (30 of 72) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 26 minutes, 54 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 189 minutes, 35 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 306 minutes, 32 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Sunday, April 2, 1950, with an umbral magnitude of 1.0329. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon's near side entirely passes into the Earth's umbral shadow. 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. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Occurring only about 23 hours before perigee (on April 3, 1950, at 20:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
This lunar eclipse was the third of a tetrad, with four total lunar eclipses in series, the others being on April 13, 1949; October 7, 1949; and September 26, 1950.
This was the first total lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 131.