March 1997 lunar eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse took place on Monday, March 24, 1997, the first of two lunar eclipses in 1997.

Partial Lunar Eclipse March 24, 1997
Hayward, California, 4:45 UT
The Moon passes right to left through the Earth's northern shadow.
Series (and member)	132 (29 of 71)
Gamma	0.4899
Magnitude	0.9195
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Partial	3:23:03
Penumbral	5:53:54
Contacts
P1	1:42:26 UTC
U1	2:57:55 UTC
Greatest	4:39:26 UTC
U4	6:20:58 UTC
P4	7:36:21 UTC

This partial lunar eclipse was nearly total; however, it occurred 3 days after the lunar apogee, so the umbral shadow is smaller.

This was the 29th member of Lunar Saros 132, and the last of the first set of partial eclipses. The next event was the April 2015 lunar eclipse, which was the first of 12 total eclipses.

This eclipse was the third of an almost tetrad (that occurred when there were 4 consecutive lunar eclipses that had an umbral eclipse magnitude of 0.9 or greater). The others were 04 Apr 1996 (T), 27 Sep 1996 (T) and 16 Sep 1997 (T).

Visibility

This eclipse was completely visible from North and South America, and visible setting over Western Europe and Africa.

This simulated view of the Earth from the Moon at greatest eclipse shows the visibility.

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 1997

• A total solar eclipse on March 9.
• A partial lunar eclipse on March 24.
• A partial solar eclipse on September 2.
• A total lunar eclipse on September 16.

Lunar year series

This was the third of four lunar year eclipses at the ascending node of the Moon's orbit.

The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days (Shifting back about 10 days in sequential years). Because of the date shift, the Earth's shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1995–1998
Ascending node					Descending node
Saros Photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros Photo	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
112	1995 Apr 15	Partial	−0.95939		117	1995 Oct 08	Penumbral	1.11794
122	1996 Apr 04	Total	−0.25339		127	1996 Sep 27	Total	0.34264
132	1997 Mar 24	Partial	0.48990		137	1997 Sep 16	Total	−0.37684
142	1998 Mar 13	Penumbral	1.19644		147	1998 Sep 06	Penumbral	−1.10579
Last set	1994 May 25				Last set	1994 Nov 18
Next set	1999 Jan 31				Next set	1998 Aug 08

Saros series

Lunar saros series 132, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 44 umbral lunar eclipses (32 partial lunar eclipses and 12 total lunar eclipses).

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2123 Jun 9, lasting 106 minutes.[1]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1492 May 12	1636 Aug 16	2015 Apr 4	2069 May 6
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2177 Jul 11	2213 Aug 2	2429 Dec 11	2754 Jun 26

There are 11 series events between 1901 and 2100, grouped into threes (called an exeligmos), each column with approximately the same viewing longitude on earth.

1901–2100

1907 Jan 29		1925 Feb 8		1943 Feb 20
1961 Mar 2		1979 Mar 13		1997 Mar 24
2015 Apr 4		2033 Apr 14		2051 Apr 26
2069 May 6		2087 May 17

Inex series

The inex series repeats eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the Moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, the variation of the Moon in its elliptical orbit at each event causes the actual eclipse time to vary significantly. It is a part of Lunar Inex series 35.

Series events from 1500–2500

Descending node		Ascending node		Descending node		Ascending node
Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart	Saros	Date Chart
115	1505 Feb 18	116	1534 Jan 30	117	1563 Jan 9	118	1591 Dec 30
119	1620 Dec 9	120	1649 Nov 19	121	1678 Oct 29	122	1707 Oct 11
123	1736 Sep 20	124	1765 Aug 30	125	1794 Aug 11	126	1823 Jul 23
127	1852 Jul 1	128	1881 Jun 12	129	1910 May 24	130	1939 May 3
131	1968 Apr 13	132	1997 Mar 24	133	2026 Mar 3	134	2055 Feb 11
135	2084 Jan 22	136	2113 Jan 2	137	2141 Dec 13	138	2170 Nov 23
139	2199 Nov 2	140	2228 Oct 14	141	2257 Sep 24	142	2286 Sep 3
143	2315 Aug 16	144	2344 Jul 26	145	2373 Jul 5	146	2402 Jun 16
147	2431 May 27	148	2460 May 5	149	2489 Apr 16

Tritos series

• Preceded: Lunar eclipse of April 24, 1986

• Followed: Lunar eclipse of February 21, 2008

Tzolkinex

• Preceded: Lunar eclipse of February 9, 1990

• Followed: Lunar eclipse of May 4, 2004

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[2] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.

March 18, 1988	March 29, 2006

Gallery

• 
  Hayward, California, 5:00 UT

See also

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

Notes

1. Listing of Eclipses of series 132
2. Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros

External links

• 1997 Mar 24 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• Photos
  • Dave Lane's March 24, 1997 Lunar Eclipse Movies and Images Archived January 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  • March 24, 1997 Partial Lunar Eclipse, Bill Pearce
  • THE 1997 MARCH 23-24 PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, CALWELL LUNAR OBSERVATORY
  • Lunar Eclipse of March 24, 1997, James Funkhouser
  • The 91% eclipsed moon on March 23-24, 1997