September 1978 lunar eclipse

September 1978 lunar eclipse
Total eclipse
Date	16 September 1978
Gamma	0.29510
Magnitude	1.32683
Saros cycle	127 (40 of 72)
Totality	78 minutes, 39 seconds
Partiality	207 minutes, 11.6 seconds
Penumbral	323 minutes, 56.7 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	16:22:15.7
U1	17:20:34.8
U2	18:24:51.5
Greatest	19:04:11.9
U3	19:43:30.5
U4	20:47:46.4
P4	21:46:12.4
	← March 1978 March 1979 →

A total lunar eclipse took place on Saturday, September 16, 1978, the second of two total lunar eclipses in 1978. The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour, 18 minutes and 39 seconds, in a deep total eclipse which saw the Moon 32.683% of its diameter inside the Earth's umbral shadow. The visual effect of this depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere, but the Moon may have been stained a deep red colour. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 27 minutes and 11.6 seconds in total.^[1]

This is the 40th member of Lunar Saros 127. The previous event is the September 1960 lunar eclipse. The next event is the September 1996 lunar eclipse.

Visibility[edit]

It was completely visible in east in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, seen rising over east in South America and setting over the Pacific (west of International Date Line), on September 17, 1978 local time.

Related lunar eclipses[edit]

Eclipses in 1978[edit]

A total lunar eclipse on Friday, 24 March 1978.
A partial solar eclipse on Friday, 7 April 1978.
A total lunar eclipse on Saturday, 16 September 1978.
A partial solar eclipse on Monday, 2 October 1978.

Lunar year series[edit]

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1977–1980
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
112	1977 Apr 04	Partial	−0.91483	117	1977 Sep 27	Penumbral	1.07682
122	1978 Mar 24	Total	−0.21402	127	1978 Sep 16	Total	0.29510
132	1979 Mar 13	Partial	0.52537	137	1979 Sep 06	Total	−0.43050
142	1980 Mar 01	Penumbral	1.22701	147	1980 Aug 26	Penumbral	−1.16082

Last set	1976 May 13			Last set	1976 Nov 06

Next set	1981 Jan 20			Next set	1980 Jul 27

Tritos series[edit]

The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.

This series produces 23 total eclipses between June 22, 1880 and August 9, 2120.

Tritos eclipse series (subset 1901–2100)
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart	Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart
120	1902 Apr 22	Total	121	1913 Mar 22	Total
122	1924 Feb 20	Total	123	1935 Jan 19	Total
124	1945 Dec 19	Total	125	1956 Nov 18	Total
126	1967 Oct 18	Total	127	1978 Sep 16	Total
128	1989 Aug 17	Total	129	2000 Jul 16	Total
130	2011 Jun 15	Total	131	2022 May 16	Total
132	2033 Apr 14	Total	133	2044 Mar 13	Total
134	2055 Feb 11	Total	135	2066 Jan 11	Total
136	2076 Dec 10	Total	137	2087 Nov 10	Total
138	2098 Oct 10	Total

Half-Saros cycle[edit]

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 11, 1969	September 23, 1987

Saros series[edit]

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.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1888 Jul 23, lasting 102 minutes.	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1275 Jul 09	1473 Nov 04	1798 May 29	1834 Jun 21
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	1960 Sep 05	2068 Nov 09	2429 Jun 17	2555 Sep 02