April 1996 lunar eclipse

Total lunar eclipse April 4, 1996

Total Lunar Eclipse April 4, 1996
Hamois, Belgium
The Moon's path through the center of the Earth's shadow.
Series (and member)	122 (55 of 75)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	1:25:45
Partial	3:37:08
Penumbral	5:44:43
Contacts
P1	21:17:22 UTC
U1	22:21:13 UTC
U2	23:26:54 UTC
Greatest	0:09:46 UTC
U3	0:52:39 UTC
U4	1:58:21 UTC
P4	3:02:04 UTC

A total lunar eclipse took place on Thursday, April 4, 1996, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1996, the other being on Friday, September 27. The Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow.

This was the last central member and 55th overall member of Lunar Saros 122. The previous event was the March 1978 lunar eclipse. The next event was the April 2014 lunar eclipse.

This eclipse was the first 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 27 Sep 1996 (T), 24 Mar 1997 (P) and 16 Sep 1997 (T).

Visibility

It could be seen completely over Africa, and Europe, seen rising over North and South America, and setting over Western Asia.

Gallery

Hamois, Belgium

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 1996

A total lunar eclipse on April 4.
A partial solar eclipse on April 17.
A total lunar eclipse on September 27.
A partial solar eclipse on October 12.

Lunar year series

This is the second of four lunar year eclipses at the ascending 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

Half-Saros cycle

A 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 hybrid solar eclipses of Solar Saros 129.

March 29, 1987	April 8, 2005

References

^ Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros

External links

Saros cycle 122
Andrés Valencia: Total Lunar Eclipse - April 3 '96
1996 Apr 04 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC

Lunar eclipses

Lists of lunar eclipses

Lunar eclipses
by era

Modern era
- 20th
- 21st
Future
- 22nd

Lunar eclipses
by saros series

Partial eclipses

Total eclipses

Penumbral eclipses

Partial	23 Mar 1940 22 Apr 1940 16 Oct 1940 1951 Feb 21 1951 Mar 23 1951 Aug 17 1951 Sep 15 1955 Jan 08 1955 Jun 05 1958 Apr 04 1958 Oct 27 1959 Sep 17 1962 Feb 19 1962 Jul 17 1962 Aug 15 1965 Dec 08 1966 May 04 1966 Oct 29 1969 Apr 02 1969 Aug 27 1969 Sep 25 1973 Jan 18 1973 Jun 15 1973 Jul 15 1976 Nov 06 1977 Sep 27 1980 Mar 01 1980 Jul 27 1980 Aug 26 1983 Dec 20 1984 May 15 1984 Jun 13 1984 Nov 08 1987 Apr 14 1987 Oct 07 1991 Jan 30 1991 Jun 27 1991 Jul 26 1994 Nov 18 1995 Oct 08 1998 Mar 13 1998 Aug 08 1998 Sep 06 2001 Dec 30 2002 May 26 2002 Jun 24 2002 Nov 20 2005 Apr 24 2009 Feb 09 2009 Jul 07 2009 Aug 06 2012 Nov 28 2013 May 25 2013 Oct 18 2016 Mar 23 2016 Aug 18 2016 Sep 16 2017 Feb 11 2020 Jan 10 2020 Jun 05 2020 Jul 05 2020 Nov 30 2023 May 05 2024 Mar 25 → 2027 Feb 20 2027 Jul 18 2027 Aug 17 2030 Dec 09 2031 May 07 2031 Jun 05 2031 Oct 30 2034 Apr 03 2035 Feb 22 2038 Jan 21 2038 Jun 17 2038 Jul 16 2038 Dec 11 2042 Apr 05 2042 Oct 28 2045 Mar 03 2045 Aug 27 2048 Dec 20 2049 May 17 2049 Jun 15 2049 Nov 09 2052 Apr 14 2053 Mar 04 2060 Nov 08 2107 May 7
Total	1963 Jan 09 1981 Jan 20 1988 Mar 03 1999 Jan 31 2006 Mar 14 → 2053 Aug 29 2070 Apr 25

Partial