March 1997 lunar eclipse

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)
Gamma	0.49
Magnitude	0.924
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Partial	3:23:03
Penumbral	5:53:54
Contacts
P1	1:42:26 UTC
U1	2:57:55 UTC
Greatest	4:39:26 UTC
U4	6:20:58 UTC
P4	7:36:21 UTC

A partial lunar eclipse took place on March 24, 1997, the first of two lunar eclipses in 1997.

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.

Related eclipses[]

Eclipses of 1997[]

A total solar eclipse on March 9.
A partial lunar eclipse on March 24.
A partial solar eclipse on September 2.
A total lunar eclipse on September 16.

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.

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[]

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
		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		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 total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.