March 1997 lunar eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse took place on 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)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Partial3:23:03
Penumbral5:53:54
Contacts
P11:42:26 UTC
U12:57:55 UTC
Greatest4:39:26 UTC
U46:20:58 UTC
P47:36:21 UTC

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

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

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.

Eclipses of 1997

Lunar year series

This is 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.

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

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

See also

Notes

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


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