September 1996 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse September 27, 1996
The mid-infrared image of the Moon was taken during a September 1996 lunar eclipse by the SPIRIT-III instrument aboard the orbiting Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite.
The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series	127 (41 of 72)
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	1:09:12
Partial	3:23:17
Penumbral	5:20:52
Contacts
P1	0:13:59 UTC
U1	1:12:43
U2	2:19:46
Greatest	2:54:22
U3	3:28:57
U4	4:35:59
P4	5:34:51

A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday, September 27, 1996, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1996, the first being on Thursday, April 4. This is the 41st member of Lunar Saros 127. The previous event is the September 1978 lunar eclipse. The next event is the October 2014 lunar eclipse.

This eclipse was the second 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 04 Apr 1996 (T), 24 Mar 1997 (P) and 16 Sep 1997 (T).

It was visible from all of North and South America, Europe and Africa.

During its totality, the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite's SPIRIT-III instrument took the image of the Moon in mid-infrared. At these wavelengths, MSX was able to characterize the thermal (heat) distribution of the lunar surface during the eclipse. The brightest regions are the warmest, and the darkest areas are the coolest. The well-known crater Tycho is the bright object to the south of center. Numerous other craters are also seen as bright spots, indicating that their temperature is higher than in the surrounding dark mare.^[1]

• 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.

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

Lunar saros series 127, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 72 lunar eclipse events including 54 umbral lunar eclipses (38 partial lunar eclipses and 16 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 134 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

1901–2100

1906 Aug 04		1924 Aug 14		1942 Aug 26
1960 Sep 05		1978 Sep 16		1996 Sep 27
2014 Oct 08		2032 Oct 18		2050 Oct 30
2068 Nov 09

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[2] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 134.

September 23, 1987	October 3, 2005

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

• Saros cycle 127
• 1996 Sep 27 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• September 1996 lunar eclipse

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