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 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 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 ...

. The next event is the

October 2014 lunar eclipse A total lunar eclipse took place on Wednesday 8 October 2014. It is the second of two total lunar eclipses in 2014, and the second in a ''tetrad'' (four total lunar eclipses in series). Other eclipses in the tetrad are those of 15 April 2014, ...

. 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).

Visibility

It was visible from all of North and South America, Europe and Africa. Lunar eclipse from moon-1996Sep27

Mid-infrared image of the Moon

During its totality, the

Midcourse Space Experiment The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) is a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) satellite experiment (unmanned space mission) to map bright infrared sources in space. MSX offered the first system demonstration of technology in space t ...

(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.

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 descending node of the moon's orbit.

Saros series

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 Saros cycle series 134 for solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an e ...

interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

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 annular solar eclipses of

References

External links

Saros cycle 127
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar eclipse 1996-09 1996-09 1996 in science September 1996 events