A total

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...

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 Saros cycle series 122 for lunar eclipses occurs at the moon's ascending node, every 18 years 11 and 1/3 days. It contains 74 events. This lunar saros is linked to Solar Saros 129. See also * List of lunar eclipses ** List of Saros series for ...

. The previous event was the

March 1978 lunar eclipse A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday, March 24, 1978, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1978. The moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow. The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour, 30 minutes and 40.2 seconds, in a ...

. The next event was the

April 2014 lunar eclipse A total lunar eclipse took place on 15 April 2014. It was the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2014, and the first in a tetrad (four total lunar eclipses in a series). Subsequent eclipses in the tetrad are those of 8 October 2014, 4 Apri ...

. 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. Lunar eclipse from moon-1996Apr04

Gallery

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.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, ''The half-saros'' This lunar eclipse is related to two hybrid solar eclipses of

Solar Saros 129 Saros cycle The saros () is a period of exactly 223 synodic months, approximately 6585.3211 days, or 18 years, 10, 11, or 12 days (depending on the number of leap years), and 8 hours, that can be used to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. On ...

References

External links

Saros cycle 122

* 1996-04 1996 in science April 1996 events {{lunar-eclipse-stub