| Total Lunar Eclipse September 16, 1997 | |
|---|---|
 The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals. | |
| Series | 137 (27 of 81) |
| Gamma | -0.3768 |
| Magnitude | 1.1909 |
| Duration (hr:mn:sc) | |
| Totality | 1:11:30 |
| Partial | 3:16:27 |
| Penumbral | 5:08:14 |
| Contacts | |
| P1 | 16:12:32 UTC |
| U1 | 17:08:25 UTC |
| U2 | 18:15:54 UTC |
| Greatest | 18:46:39 UTC |
| U3 | 19:17:24 UTC |
| U4 | 20:24:52 UTC |
| P4 | 21:20:46 UTC |
A total lunar eclipse took place at the Moon's descending node of the orbit on Tuesday, September 16, 1997, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1997. A shallow total eclipse saw the Moon in relative darkness for 1 hour, 1 minute and 30.8 seconds. The Moon was 19.094% of its diameter into the Earth's umbral shadow, and should have been significantly darkened. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 16 minutes and 28.2 seconds in total. The penumbral eclipse lasted for 5 hours, 8 minutes and 20.1 seconds. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 16 minutes and 28.2 seconds. The total eclipse lasted for 1 hour, 1 minute and 30.8 seconds. Maximum eclipse was at 18:46:39.1 UTC. The moon's apparent diameter was extremely large (6.3% larger than average) because occurred only 3 hours and 21 minutes past perigee. The Moon was only 356,986 km (221,820 mi) of the Earth at greatest eclipse.
This eclipse was the fourth and last 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 04 Apr 1996 (T), 27 Sep 1996 (T) and 24 Mar 1997 (P).
This eclipse was the 25th eclipse in Saros series 137 (lunar eclipse), descending node. The previous event was on Thursday, September 6, 1979. The next event was on Monday, September 28, 2015.
Visibility
editIt was visible from all of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Related eclipses
editEclipses of 1997
edit- 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
editThis is the third of four lunar year eclipses at the descending 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 | |||||
Saros series
editIt is part of Saros series 137.
Half-Saros cycle
editA 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 annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 144.
| September 11, 1988 | September 22, 2006 |
|---|---|
|
|
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros
External links
edit- Prof. Druckmüller's eclipse photography site. Czech Republic
- Saros cycle 137
- 1997 Sep 16 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
- The EAAE Lunar Eclipse Project Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine September 16, 1997
- Total Lunar Eclipses seen from Cape Town[permanent dead link] Total lunar eclipse, September 16, 1997.
- Total Lunar Eclipse September 16, 1997, Western Australia
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