| Penumbral eclipse | |||||||||
 The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left | |||||||||
| Date | March 3, 1988 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 0.9886 | ||||||||
| Magnitude | −0.0016 | ||||||||
| Saros cycle | 113 (62 of 71) | ||||||||
| Penumbral | 293 minutes, 45 seconds | ||||||||
| |||||||||
A penumbrallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit on Thursday, March 3, 1988,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of −0.0016. It was a relatively raretotal penumbral lunar eclipse, with the Moon passing entirely within the penumbral shadow without entering the darker umbral shadow.[2] A lunar eclipse occurs when theMoon moves into theEarth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. Unlike asolar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on thenight side of Earth. Occurring about 2.2 days afterapogee (on March 1, 1988, at 11:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[3]
The eclipse was completely visible over most ofAsia andAustralia, seen rising over much ofAfrica,Europe, and theMiddle East and setting over westernNorth America and the centralPacific Ocean.[4]
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Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[5]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Penumbral Magnitude | 1.09076 |
| Umbral Magnitude | −0.00163 |
| Gamma | 0.98855 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 22h58m28.1s |
| Sun Declination | -06°33'42.5" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'07.8" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 11h00m10.4s |
| Moon Declination | +07°20'53.4" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'46.0" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°54'11.6" |
| ΔT | 55.8 s |
This eclipse is part of aneclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by afortnight.
| March 3 Descending node (full moon) | March 18 Ascending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 113 | Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 139 |
This eclipse is a member of asemester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternatingnodes of the Moon's orbit.[6]
The lunar eclipses onJune 27, 1991 (penumbral) andDecember 21, 1991 (partial) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 1988 to 1991 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
| 113 | 1988 Mar 03 | Penumbral | 0.9886 | 118 | 1988 Aug 27 | Partial | −0.8682 | |
| 123 | 1989 Feb 20 | Total | 0.2935 | 128 | 1989 Aug 17 | Total | −0.1491 | |
| 133 | 1990 Feb 09 | Total | −0.4148 | 138 | 1990 Aug 06 | Partial | 0.6374 | |
| 143 | 1991 Jan 30 | Penumbral | −1.0752 | 148 | 1991 Jul 26 | Penumbral | 1.4370 | |
TheMetonic cycle repeats nearly exactly every 19 years and represents aSaros cycle plus one lunar year. Because it occurs on the same calendar date, the Earth's shadow will be in nearly the same location relative to the background stars.
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This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 113, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on April 29, 888 AD. It contains partial eclipses from July 14, 1014 through March 10, 1411; total eclipses from March 20, 1429 through August 7, 1645; and a second set of partial eclipses from August 18, 1663 throughFebruary 21, 1970. The series ends at member 71 as a penumbral eclipse on June 10, 2150.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 38 at 103 minutes, 6 seconds on June 5, 1555. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit.[7]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on1555 Jun 05, lasting 103 minutes, 6 seconds.[8] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 888 Apr 29 | 1014 Jul 14 | 1429 Mar 20 | 1483 Apr 22 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
| 1609 Jul 16 | 1645 Aug 07 | 1970 Feb 21 | 2150 Jun 10 | |
Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is oneexeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
| Series members 52–71 occur between 1801 and 2150: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | 53 | 54 | |||
| 1807 Nov 15 | 1825 Nov 25 | 1843 Dec 07 | |||
| 55 | 56 | 57 | |||
| 1861 Dec 17 | 1879 Dec 28 | 1898 Jan 08 | |||
| 58 | 59 | 60 | |||
| 1916 Jan 20 | 1934 Jan 30 | 1952 Feb 11 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 61 | 62 | 63 | |||
| 1970 Feb 21 | 1988 Mar 03 | 2006 Mar 14 | |||
|  | | |  |  |
| 64 | 65 | 66 | |||
| 2024 Mar 25 | 2042 Apr 05 | 2060 Apr 15 | |||
 |  |  |  | ||
| 67 | 68 | 69 | |||
| 2078 Apr 27 | 2096 May 07 | 2114 May 19 | |||
| 70 | 71 | ||||
| 2132 May 30 | 2150 Jun 10 | ||||
This eclipse is a part of atritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
| Series members between 1835 and 2200 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1835 May 12 (Saros 99) | 1846 Apr 11 (Saros 100) | 1868 Feb 08 (Saros 102) | 1879 Jan 08 (Saros 103) | ||||||
| 1933 Aug 05 (Saros 108) | |||||||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1944 Jul 06 (Saros 109) | 1955 Jun 05 (Saros 110) | 1966 May 04 (Saros 111) | 1977 Apr 04 (Saros 112) | 1988 Mar 03 (Saros 113) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | |
| 1999 Jan 31 (Saros 114) | 2009 Dec 31 (Saros 115) | 2020 Nov 30 (Saros 116) | 2031 Oct 30 (Saros 117) | 2042 Sep 29 (Saros 118) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2053 Aug 29 (Saros 119) | 2064 Jul 28 (Saros 120) | 2075 Jun 28 (Saros 121) | 2086 May 28 (Saros 122) | 2097 Apr 26 (Saros 123) | |||||
 | |||||||||
| 2108 Mar 27 (Saros 124) | 2119 Feb 25 (Saros 125) | 2130 Jan 24 (Saros 126) | 2140 Dec 23 (Saros 127) | 2151 Nov 24 (Saros 128) | |||||
| 2162 Oct 23 (Saros 129) | 2173 Sep 21 (Saros 130) | 2184 Aug 21 (Saros 131) | 2195 Jul 22 (Saros 132) | ||||||
This eclipse is a part of the long periodinex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
| Series members between 1801 and 2200 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1814 Jul 02 (Saros 107) | 1843 Jun 12 (Saros 108) | 1872 May 22 (Saros 109) | |||
| 1901 May 03 (Saros 110) | 1930 Apr 13 (Saros 111) | 1959 Mar 24 (Saros 112) | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 1988 Mar 03 (Saros 113) | 2017 Feb 11 (Saros 114) | 2046 Jan 22 (Saros 115) | |||
| |  |  |  |  |
| 2075 Jan 02 (Saros 116) | 2103 Dec 13 (Saros 117) | 2132 Nov 23 (Saros 118) | |||
| 2161 Nov 03 (Saros 119) | 2190 Oct 13 (Saros 120) | ||||
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (ahalf saros).[9] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 120.
| February 26, 1979 | March 9, 1997 |
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