March 1979 lunar eclipse - Misplaced Pages

Partial lunar eclipse March 13, 1979

March 1979 lunar eclipse

Partial eclipse

The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left

Date

March 13, 1979

Gamma

0.5254

Magnitude

0.8538

Saros cycle

132 (28 of 71)

Partiality

197 minutes, 39 seconds

Penumbral

350 minutes, 37 seconds

Contacts (UTC)
P1	18:12:42
U1	19:29:14
Greatest	21:08:02
U4	22:46:53
P4	0:03:19

← September 1978 September 1979 →

A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, March 13, 1979, with an umbral magnitude of 0.8538. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in the Earth's penumbra. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring about 3.5 days after apogee (on March 10, 1979, at 10:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over much of Africa, Europe, and the western half of Asia, seen rising over eastern North America, South America, and west Africa and setting over east and northeast Asia and Australia.

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

March 13, 1979 Lunar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	1.93496
Umbral Magnitude	0.85377
Gamma	0.52537
Sun Right Ascension	23h33m09.8s
Sun Declination	-02°53'59.0"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'05.4"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	11h33m44.4s
Moon Declination	+03°21'20.5"
Moon Semi-Diameter	14'52.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°54'36.9"
ΔT	49.7 s

Eclipse season

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses of 1977–1980

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The penumbral lunar eclipse on July 27, 1980 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1977 to 1980
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
112	1977 Apr 04	Partial	−0.9148	117	1977 Sep 27	Penumbral	1.0768
122	1978 Mar 24	Total	−0.2140	127	1978 Sep 16	Total	0.2951
132	1979 Mar 13	Partial	0.5254	137	1979 Sep 06	Total	−0.4305
142	1980 Mar 01	Penumbral	1.2270	147	1980 Aug 26	Penumbral	−1.1608

Saros 132

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 132, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on May 12, 1492. It contains partial eclipses from August 16, 1636 through March 24, 1997; total eclipses from April 4, 2015 through August 2, 2213; and a second set of partial eclipses from August 13, 2231 through November 30, 2411. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 26, 2754.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 36 at 106 minutes, 6 seconds on June 9, 2123. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2123 Jun 09, lasting 106 minutes, 6 seconds.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1492 May 12	1636 Aug 16	2015 Apr 04	2069 May 06
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2177 Jul 11	2213 Aug 02	2411 Nov 30	2754 Jun 26

Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

Series members 19–40 occur between 1801 and 2200:
19	20	21
1816 Dec 04	1834 Dec 16	1852 Dec 26

22	23	24
1871 Jan 06	1889 Jan 17	1907 Jan 29

25	26	27
1925 Feb 08	1943 Feb 20	1961 Mar 02

28	29	30
1979 Mar 13	1997 Mar 24	2015 Apr 04

31	32	33
2033 Apr 14	2051 Apr 26	2069 May 06

34	35	36
2087 May 17	2105 May 28	2123 Jun 09

37	38	39
2141 Jun 19	2159 Jun 30	2177 Jul 11

40
2195 Jul 22

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.