| Penumbral eclipse | |||||||||
 The hourly motion of the Moon shown right to left | |||||||||
| Date | March 23, 2016 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 1.1592 | ||||||||
| Magnitude | −0.3107 | ||||||||
| Saros cycle | 142 (18 of 73) | ||||||||
| Penumbral | 255 minutes, 21 seconds | ||||||||
| |||||||||
A penumbrallunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’sascending node of orbit on Wednesday, March 23, 2016,[1] with an umbralmagnitude of −0.3107. 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 days beforeapogee (on March 25, 2016, at 10:15 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
The eclipse was completely visible overAustralia and westernNorth America, seen rising over much ofAsia and setting over central and eastern North America and westernSouth America.[3]
 | Hourly motion shown right to left |
 Visibility map | |
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[4]
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Penumbral Magnitude | 0.77585 |
| Umbral Magnitude | −0.31071 |
| Gamma | 1.15916 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 00h12m02.0s |
| Sun Declination | +01°18'10.9" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'02.7" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 12h13m18.6s |
| Moon Declination | -00°18'21.4" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'46.0" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°54'11.6" |
| ΔT | 68.0 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 9 Descending node (new moon) | March 23 Ascending node (full moon) |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 130 | Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 142 |
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.[5]
The penumbral lunar eclipse onMay 25, 2013 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the penumbral lunar eclipse onAugust 18, 2016 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Lunar eclipse series sets from 2013 to 2016 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||||
| Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | Saros | Date Viewing | Type Chart | Gamma | |
112 | 2013 Apr 25 | Partial | −1.0121 | 117_(cropped).jpg) | 2013 Oct 18 | Penumbral | 1.1508 | |
122 | 2014 Apr 15 | Total | −0.3017 | 127 | 2014 Oct 08 | Total | 0.3827 | |
132 | 2015 Apr 04 | Total | 0.4460 | 137 | 2015 Sep 28 | Total | −0.3296 | |
| 142 | 2016 Mar 23 | Penumbral | 1.1592 | 147.jpg) | 2016 Sep 16 | Penumbral | −1.0549 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 142, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on September 19, 1709. It contains partial eclipses fromMay 5, 2088 through July 10, 2196; total eclipses from July 22, 2214 through April 21, 2665; and a second set of partial eclipses from May 3, 2683 through July 29, 2827. The series ends at member 73 as a penumbral eclipse on November 17, 3007.
The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 34 at 103 minutes, 54 seconds on September 15, 2304. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sascending node of orbit.[6]
| Greatest | First | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on2304 Sep 15, lasting 103 minutes, 54 seconds.[7] | Penumbral | Partial | Total | Central |
| 1709 Sep 19 | 2088 May 05 | 2214 Jul 22 | 2250 Aug 13 | |
| Last | ||||
| Central | Total | Partial | Penumbral | |
| 2448 Dec 10 | 2665 Apr 21 | 2827 Jul 29 | 3007 Nov 17 | |
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 7–28 occur between 1801 and 2200: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 8 | 9 | |||
| 1817 Nov 23 | 1835 Dec 05 | 1853 Dec 15 | |||
| 10 | 11 | 12 | |||
| 1871 Dec 26 | 1890 Jan 06 | 1908 Jan 18 | |||
 |  | ||||
| 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
| 1926 Jan 28 | 1944 Feb 09 | 1962 Feb 19 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | |||
| 1980 Mar 01 | 1998 Mar 13 | 2016 Mar 23 | |||
 |  |  |  | | |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | |||
| 2034 Apr 03 | 2052 Apr 14 | 2070 Apr 25 | |||
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | |||
| 2088 May 05 | 2106 May 17 | 2124 May 28 | |||
| 25 | 26 | 27 | |||
| 2142 Jun 08 | 2160 Jun 18 | 2178 Jun 30 | |||
| 28 | |||||
| 2196 Jul 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 1801 and 2200 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1808 Nov 03 (Saros 123) | 1819 Oct 03 (Saros 124) | 1830 Sep 02 (Saros 125) | 1841 Aug 02 (Saros 126) | 1852 Jul 01 (Saros 127) | |||||
| 1863 Jun 01 (Saros 128) | 1874 May 01 (Saros 129) | 1885 Mar 30 (Saros 130) | 1896 Feb 28 (Saros 131) | 1907 Jan 29 (Saros 132) | |||||
 |  | ||||||||
| 1917 Dec 28 (Saros 133) | 1928 Nov 27 (Saros 134) | 1939 Oct 28 (Saros 135) | 1950 Sep 26 (Saros 136) | 1961 Aug 26 (Saros 137) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 1972 Jul 26 (Saros 138) | 1983 Jun 25 (Saros 139) | 1994 May 25 (Saros 140) | 2005 Apr 24 (Saros 141) | 2016 Mar 23 (Saros 142) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | |
| 2027 Feb 20 (Saros 143) | 2038 Jan 21 (Saros 144) | 2048 Dec 20 (Saros 145) | 2059 Nov 19 (Saros 146) | 2070 Oct 19 (Saros 147) | |||||
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2081 Sep 18 (Saros 148) | 2092 Aug 17 (Saros 149) | 2103 Jul 19 (Saros 150) | 2114 Jun 18 (Saros 151) | 2125 May 17 (Saros 152) | |||||
| 2136 Apr 16 (Saros 153) | 2169 Jan 13 (Saros 156) | ||||||||
| 2190 Nov 12 (Saros 158) | |||||||||
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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1813 Aug 12 (Saros 135) | 1842 Jul 22 (Saros 136) | 1871 Jul 02 (Saros 137) | |||
| 1900 Jun 13 (Saros 138) | 1929 May 23 (Saros 139) | 1958 May 03 (Saros 140) | |||
 |  |  |  | ||
| 1987 Apr 14 (Saros 141) | 2016 Mar 23 (Saros 142) | 2045 Mar 03 (Saros 143) | |||
 |  | | |  |  |
| 2074 Feb 11 (Saros 144) | 2103 Jan 23 (Saros 145) | 2132 Jan 02 (Saros 146) | |||
| 2160 Dec 13 (Saros 147) | 2189 Nov 22 (Saros 148) | ||||
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (ahalf saros).[8] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses ofSolar Saros 149.
| March 19, 2007 | March 29, 2025 |
|---|---|
 |  |
_(cropped).jpg)
