A partial lunar eclipse occurred on July 25, 1972 and July 26, 1972, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1972 with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 0.54271. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the three celestial bodies do not form a straight line in space. When that happens, a small part of the Moon's surface is covered by the darkest, central part of the Earth's shadow, called the umbra. The rest of the Moon is covered by the outer part of the Earth's shadow called the penumbra. The moon's apparent diameter was 3.2 arcseconds smaller than the January 30, 1972 lunar eclipse.