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April 1996 lunar eclipse

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Total Lunar Eclipse
April 4, 1996

Hamois, Belgium

The Moon's path through the center of the Earth's shadow.
Series (and member) 122 (55 of 75)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality 1:25:45
Partial 3:37:08
Penumbral 5:44:43
Contacts
P1 21:17:22 UTC
U1 22:21:13 UTC
U2 23:26:54 UTC
Greatest 0:09:46 UTC
U3 0:52:39 UTC
U4 1:58:21 UTC
P4 3:02:04 UTC

A total lunar eclipse took place on Thursday, April 4, 1996, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1996, the other being on Friday, September 27. The Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow.

This was the last central member and 55th overall member of Lunar Saros 122. The previous event was the March 1978 lunar eclipse. The next event was the April 2014 lunar eclipse.

This eclipse was the first 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 27 Sep 1996 (T), 24 Mar 1997 (P) and 16 Sep 1997 (T).

Visibility

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It could be seen completely over Africa, and Europe, seen rising over North and South America, and setting over Western Asia.

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Hamois, Belgium
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Eclipses of 1996

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Lunar year series

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This is the second of four lunar year eclipses at the ascending 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

Half-Saros cycle

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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 hybrid solar eclipses of Solar Saros 129.

March 29, 1987 April 8, 2005

See also

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References

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