January 2019 lunar eclipse
| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
Totality as viewed from Oria, Italy, 5:43 UTC | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | January 21, 2019 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Gamma | 0.3684 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.1966 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 134 (27 of 73) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 61 minutes, 59 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 196 minutes, 45 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 311 minutes, 30 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
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A total lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Monday, January 21, 2019, with an umbral magnitude of 1.1966. 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 about 10 hours before perigee (on January 21, 2019, at 15:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
Because the Moon was near its perigee on January 21, it can be described as a "supermoon". As this supermoon was also a wolf moon (the first full moon in a calendar year), it was referred to as a "super blood wolf moon"; blood refers to the typical red color of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This was the last total lunar eclipse until May 2021. This was a Super Full Moon because occurred less than a day before perigee and the Moon was less than exactly 360,000 km (223,694 mi).
The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California captured video showing a meteoroid between the size of an acorn and tennis ball impacting the Moon during the eclipse. The impact was observed during totality, at 4:41 UTC, on the left side of the Moon. It is the only documented case of a lunar impact during a total lunar eclipse.