April 1968 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse April 13, 1968
(No photo)
The moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series	131 (31 of 72)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality
Partial
Penumbral
Contacts
P1	UTC
U1
U2
Greatest
U3
U4
P4

A total lunar eclipse took place on April 13, 1968, the first of two total eclipses in 1968, the second being on October 6, 1968.

Visibility[]

It was visible from North and South America, as well as Africa and western Europe.

Related lunar eclipses[]

Lunar year series[]

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1966–1969
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart
111	1966 May 4	Penumbral	116	1966 Oct 29	Penumbral
121	1967 Apr 24	Total	126	1967 Oct 18	Total
131	1968 Apr 13	Total	136	1968 Oct 6	Total
141	1969 Apr 2	Penumbral	146	1969 Sep 25	Penumbral

Last set	1965 Jun 14		Last set	1965 Dec 8

Next set	1970 Feb 21		Next set	1969 Aug 27

Saros series[]

It is the second total lunar eclipse of the series.

Lunar Saros series 131, has 72 lunar eclipses. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

This eclipse series began in AD 1427 with a partial eclipse at the southern edge of the Earth's shadow when the Moon was close to its descending node. Each successive Saros cycle, the Moon's orbital path is shifted northward with respect to the Earth's shadow, with the first total eclipse occurring in 1950. For the following 252 years, total eclipses occur, with the central eclipse being predicted to occur in 2078. The first partial eclipse after this is predicted to occur in the year 2220, and the final partial eclipse of the series will occur in 2707. The total lifetime of the lunar Saros series 131 is 1280 years. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Because of the ⅓ fraction of days in a Saros cycle, the visibility of each eclipse will differ for an observer at a given fixed locale. For the lunar Saros series 131, the first total eclipse of 1950 had its best visibility for viewers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East because mid-eclipse was at 20:44 UT. The following eclipse in the series occurred approximately 8 hours later in the day with mid-eclipse at 4:47 UT, and was best seen from North America and South America. The third total eclipse occurred approximately 8 hours later in the day than the second eclipse with mid-eclipse at 12:43 UT, and had its best visibility for viewers in the Western Pacific, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This cycle of visibility repeats from the initiation to termination of the series, with minor variations. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Lunar Saros series 131, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 72 lunar eclipse events including 57 umbral lunar eclipses (42 partial lunar eclipses and 15 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 138 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 will occur on 2094 Jun 28, lasting 102 minutes.^[1]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1427 May 10	1553 July 25	1950 Apr 2	2022 May 16
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2148 Jul 31	2202 Sep 3	2563 Apr 9	2707 Jul 7

1901–2100
1914 Mar 12	1932 Mar 22	1950 Apr 2

1968 Apr 13	1986 Apr 24	2004 May 4

2022 May 16	2040 May 26	2058 Jun 6

2076 Jun 17	2094 Jun 28

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		116		117		118
119		120		121		122
123		124		125		126
127		128		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		137		138
139		140		141		142
143		144		145		146
147		148		149

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 138.