Total Lunar Eclipse
September 16, 1997

The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series137 (27 of 81)
Gamma-0.3768
Magnitude1.1909
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality1:11:30
Partial3:16:27
Penumbral5:08:14
Contacts
P116:12:32 UTC
U117:08:25 UTC
U218:15:54 UTC
Greatest18:46:39 UTC
U319:17:24 UTC
U420:24:52 UTC
P421:20:46 UTC

A total lunar eclipse took place at the Moon's descending node of the orbit on Tuesday, September 16, 1997, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1997. A shallow total eclipse saw the Moon in relative darkness for 1 hour, 1 minute and 30.8 seconds. The Moon was 19.094% of its diameter into the Earth's umbral shadow, and should have been significantly darkened. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 16 minutes and 28.2 seconds in total. The penumbral eclipse lasted for 5 hours, 8 minutes and 20.1 seconds. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 16 minutes and 28.2 seconds. The total eclipse lasted for 1 hour, 1 minute and 30.8 seconds. Maximum eclipse was at 18:46:39.1 UTC. The moon's apparent diameter was extremely large (6.3% larger than average) because occurred only 3 hours and 21 minutes past perigee. The Moon was only 356,986 km (221,820 mi) of the Earth at greatest eclipse.

This eclipse was the fourth and last 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 24 Mar 1997 (P).

This eclipse was the 25th eclipse in Saros series 137 (lunar eclipse), descending node. The previous event was on Thursday, September 6, 1979. The next event was on Monday, September 28, 2015.

Visibility

It was visible from all of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Eclipses of 1997

Lunar year series

This is the third 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

It is part of Saros series 137.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 144.

September 11, 1988 September 22, 2006

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros


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