March 1998 lunar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, March 13, 1998,^[1] with an umbral magnitude of −0.3824. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth'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 a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring about 2.3 days before apogee (on March 15, 1998, at 12:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.^[2]

March 1998 lunar eclipse

Penumbral eclipse
The Moon's hourly motion shown right to left
Date	March 13, 1998
Gamma	1.1964
Magnitude	−0.3824
Saros cycle	142 (17 of 74)
Penumbral	246 minutes, 21 seconds
Contacts (UTC) P1 2:16:52 Greatest 4:20:05 P4 6:23:13
← September 1997 August 1998 →

Visibility

The eclipse was completely visible over much of North America, South America, west Africa and western Europe, seen rising over northwestern North America and the central Pacific Ocean and setting over much of Europe, much of Africa, and west and central Asia.^[3]

Eclipse details

Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.^[4]

March 13, 1998 Lunar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Penumbral Magnitude	0.70862
Umbral Magnitude	−0.38237
Gamma	1.19644
Sun Right Ascension	23h32m02.0s
Sun Declination	-03°01'14.6"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'05.6"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	11h33m20.6s
Moon Declination	+04°02'58.3"
Moon Semi-Diameter	14'45.1"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°54'08.2"
ΔT	63.0 s

Eclipse season

See also: Eclipse cycle

This eclipse is part of an eclipse 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 a fortnight.

Eclipse season of February–March 1998

February 26 Descending node (new moon)	March 13 Ascending node (full moon)
Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 130	Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 142

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1998

• A total solar eclipse on February 26.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 13.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 8.
• An annular solar eclipse on August 22.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 6.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 25, 1994
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 30, 2001

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 30, 1991
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 24, 2005

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 7, 1989
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 19, 2007

Tritos

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 14, 1987
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 9, 2009

Lunar Saros 142

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 1, 1980
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 23, 2016

Inex

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 2, 1969
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 20, 2027

Triad

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 13, 1911
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 10, 2085

Lunar eclipses of 1995–1998

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of lunar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[5]

The penumbral lunar eclipse on August 8, 1998 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1995 to 1998
Ascending node					Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
112	1995 Apr 15	Partial	−0.9594		117	1995 Oct 08	Penumbral	1.1179
122	1996 Apr 04	Total	−0.2534		127	1996 Sep 27	Total	0.3426
132	1997 Mar 24	Partial	0.4899		137	1997 Sep 16	Total	−0.3768
142	1998 Mar 13	Penumbral	1.1964		147	1998 Sep 06	Penumbral	−1.1058

Saros 142

This eclipse is a part of Saros 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 from May 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’s ascending node of orbit.^[6]

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2304 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 one exeligmos 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

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic 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 2183
1801 Sep 22 (Saros 124)		1812 Aug 22 (Saros 125)		1823 Jul 23 (Saros 126)		1834 Jun 21 (Saros 127)		1845 May 21 (Saros 128)
1856 Apr 20 (Saros 129)		1867 Mar 20 (Saros 130)		1878 Feb 17 (Saros 131)		1889 Jan 17 (Saros 132)		1899 Dec 17 (Saros 133)
1910 Nov 17 (Saros 134)		1921 Oct 16 (Saros 135)		1932 Sep 14 (Saros 136)		1943 Aug 15 (Saros 137)		1954 Jul 16 (Saros 138)
1965 Jun 14 (Saros 139)		1976 May 13 (Saros 140)		1987 Apr 14 (Saros 141)		1998 Mar 13 (Saros 142)		2009 Feb 09 (Saros 143)
2020 Jan 10 (Saros 144)		2030 Dec 09 (Saros 145)		2041 Nov 08 (Saros 146)		2052 Oct 08 (Saros 147)		2063 Sep 07 (Saros 148)
2074 Aug 07 (Saros 149)		2085 Jul 07 (Saros 150)		2096 Jun 06 (Saros 151)		2107 May 07 (Saros 152)
				2151 Jan 02 (Saros 156)				2172 Oct 31 (Saros 158)
2183 Oct 01 (Saros 159)

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic 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
1824 Jul 11 (Saros 136)		1853 Jun 21 (Saros 137)		1882 Jun 01 (Saros 138)
1911 May 13 (Saros 139)		1940 Apr 22 (Saros 140)		1969 Apr 02 (Saros 141)
1998 Mar 13 (Saros 142)		2027 Feb 20 (Saros 143)		2056 Feb 01 (Saros 144)
2085 Jan 10 (Saros 145)		2113 Dec 22 (Saros 146)		2142 Dec 03 (Saros 147)
2171 Nov 12 (Saros 148)		2200 Oct 23 (Saros 149)

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[8] This lunar eclipse is related to two partial solar eclipses of Solar Saros 149.

March 7, 1989	March 19, 2007
!	!

See also

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