| bgcolor=#e7dcc3 colspan=2 | Total Lunar Eclipse September 27, 1996 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The mid-infrared image of the Moon was taken during a September 1996 lunar eclipse by the SPIRIT-III instrument aboard the orbiting Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite. | |||
The Moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals. | |||
| align=center bgcolor=#c0d0e0 | Series | 127 (41 of 72) | |
| align=center bgcolor=#c0b0e0 colspan=2 | Duration (hr:mn:sc) | ||
| align=center bgcolor=#b0a0e0 | Totality | 1:09:12 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#c0a0e0 | Partial | 3:23:17 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#d0d0e0 | Penumbral | 5:20:52 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#a0d0e0 colspan=2 | Contacts | ||
| align=center bgcolor=#d0d0e0 | P1 | 0:13:59 UTC | |
| align=center bgcolor=#c0a0e0 | U1 | 1:12:43 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#b0a0e0 | U2 | 2:19:46 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#a0a0e0 | Greatest | 2:54:22 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#b0a0e0 | U3 | 3:28:57 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#c0a0e0 | U4 | 4:35:59 | |
| align=center bgcolor=#d0d0e0 | P4 | 5:34:51 | |
A total lunar eclipse 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. The next event is the October 2014 lunar eclipse.
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).
It was visible from all of North and South America, Europe and Africa.
During its totality, the Midcourse Space Experiment (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.
This is the second of four lunar year eclipses at the descending node of the Moon's orbit.
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 | |
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).[1] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 134.