A partial lunar eclipse occurred at the MoonâÂÂs 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, a near total one, 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.
The eclipse was completely visible over much of North America and South America, seen rising over western North America and the central Pacific Ocean and setting over Africa, Europe, and west and central Asia.
Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
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.
A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros). This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.