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December 1973 lunar eclipse

Partial lunar eclipse December 10, 1973

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 11, 2025
Entity authorityQ5248950
Source-derived summary

A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Monday, December 10, 1973, with an umbral magnitude of 0.1007. 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 one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part 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. Occurring only about 21 hours before perigee (on December 10, 1973, at 22:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

This eclipse was the last of four lunar eclipses in 1973, with the others occurring on January 18 (penumbral), June 15 (penumbral), and July 15 (penumbral).

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over much of North and South America, Africa, Europe, and west and north Asia, seen rising over western North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean and setting over southeast Africa and much of Asia.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur.

Editorial summary

“December 1973 lunar eclipse” enters the record as partial lunar eclipse December 10, 1973. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what December, lunar and eclipse can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1973, 1007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around December, lunar and eclipse.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from December 1973 lunar eclipse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.