Total Lunar Eclipse
September 27, 1996

The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series127 (41 of 72)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality1:09:12
Partial3:23:17
Penumbral5:20:52
Contacts
P10:13:59 UTC
U11:12:43
U22:19:46
Greatest2:54:22
U33:28:57
U44:35:59
P45:34:51

A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday, September 27, 1996, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1996, the first being on Thursday, April 4. This is the 41st member of Lunar Saros 127. The previous event is the September 1978 lunar eclipse. The next event is the October 2014 lunar eclipse.

This eclipse was the second 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), 24 Mar 1997 (P) and 16 Sep 1997 (T).

Visibility

It was visible from all of North and South America, Europe and Africa.

Mid-infrared image of the Moon

The mid-infrared image of the Moon was taken during a September 1996 lunar eclipse by the SPIRIT-III instrument aboard the orbiting Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite.

During its totality, the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite's SPIRIT-III instrument took the image of the Moon in mid-infrared. At these wavelengths, MSX was able to characterize the thermal (heat) distribution of the lunar surface during the eclipse. The brightest regions are the warmest, and the darkest areas are the coolest. The well-known crater Tycho is the bright object to the south of center. Numerous other craters are also seen as bright spots, indicating that their temperature is higher than in the surrounding dark mare.[1]

Eclipses of 1996

Lunar year series

This is the second of four lunar year eclipses at the descending node of the Moon's orbit.

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 127, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 72 lunar eclipse events including 54 umbral lunar eclipses (38 partial lunar eclipses and 16 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 134 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Greatest First

The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1888 Jul 23, lasting 102 minutes.		 Penumbral Partial Total Central
1275 Jul 09 1473 Nov 04 1798 May 29 1834 Jun 21
Last
Central Total Partial Penumbral
1960 Sep 05 2068 Nov 09 2429 Jun 17 2555 Sep 02
1901–2100
1906 Aug 04 1924 Aug 14 1942 Aug 26
1960 Sep 05 1978 Sep 16 1996 Sep 27
2014 Oct 08 2032 Oct 18 2050 Oct 30
2068 Nov 09

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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 134.

September 23, 1987 October 3, 2005

See also

References

  1. ↑ NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Eclipsed Moon in Infrared (8 November 2003)
  2. ↑ Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros
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