September 1978 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse took place on September 16, 1978, the second of two total lunar eclipses in 1978. The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour, 18 minutes and 39 seconds, in a deep total eclipse which saw the Moon 32.683% of its diameter inside the Earth's umbral shadow. The visual effect of this depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere, but the Moon may have been stained a deep red colour. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 27 minutes and 11.6 seconds in total.[1]

Total Lunar Eclipse
September 16, 1978
(No photo)

The moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series127 (40 of 72)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality
Partial
Penumbral
Contacts
P1UTC
U1
U2
Greatest
U3
U4
P4

This is the 40th member of Lunar Saros 127. The previous event is the September 1960 lunar eclipse. The next event is the September 1996 lunar eclipse.

Visibility

Lunar year series

Tritos series

The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.

This series produces 23 total eclipses between June 22, 1880 and August 9, 2120.

Tritos eclipse series (subset 1901–2100)
Ascending node   Descending node
Saros Date
Viewing
Type
chart
Saros Date
Viewing
Type
chart
120 1902 Apr 22
Total
121 1913 Mar 22
Total
122 1924 Feb 20
Total
123 1935 Jan 19
Total
124 1945 Dec 19
Total
125 1956 Nov 18
Total
126 1967 Oct 18
Total
127 1978 Sep 16
Total
128 1989 Aug 17
Total
129 2000 Jul 16
Total
130 2011 Jun 15
Total
131 2022 May 16
Total
132 2033 Apr 14
Total
133 2044 Mar 13
Total
134 2055 Feb 11
Total
135 2066 Jan 11
Total
136 2076 Dec 10
Total
137 2087 Nov 10
Total
138 2098 Oct 10
Total

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 11, 1969 September 23, 1987

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

See also

Notes

  1. Hermit Eclipse: Saros cycle 127
  2. Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros


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