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