March 1997 lunar eclipse
| Partial eclipse | |||||||||||||
Partiality as viewed from Hayward, California at 4:45 UTC | |||||||||||||
| Date | March 24, 1997 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 0.4899 | ||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 0.9195 | ||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 132 (29 of 71) | ||||||||||||
| Partiality | 203 minutes, 3 seconds | ||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 353 minutes, 54 seconds | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Monday, March 24, 1997, with an umbral magnitude of 0.9195. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when one part of the Moon is in the Earth's umbra, while the other part is in 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 3.2 days after apogee (on March 20, 1997, at 23:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
This lunar eclipse was the third of an almost tetrad, with the others being on April 4, 1996 (total); September 27, 1996 (total); and September 16, 1997 (total).
This was the last of the first set of partial eclipses in Lunar Saros 132.