March 1979 lunar eclipse

March 1979 lunar eclipse
Partial eclipse
Date	13 March 1979
Gamma	0.52537
Magnitude	0.85377
Saros cycle	132 (28 of 71)
Partiality	197 minutes, 40.7 seconds
Penumbral	350 minutes, 42.8 seconds
P1
Contacts (UTC)
P1	18:12:39.6
U1	19:29:13.7
Greatest	21:08:02.3
U4	22:46:54.4
P4	00:03:22.4 (14 Mar)
	← September 1978 September 1979 →

A partial lunar eclipse took place on Tuesday, March 13, 1979, the first of two lunar eclipses in 1979. The Moon was strikingly shadowed in this deep partial eclipse which lasted 3 hours, 17 minutes and 40.6 seconds, with 85.377% of the Moon in darkness at maximum.

This event followed the total solar eclipse of February 26, 1979.

Visibility

It was completely visible in east in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and west in Australia, seen rising over the Americas and setting over Asia and Australia.

Related lunar eclipses

Eclipses in 1979

A total solar eclipse on Monday, 26 February 1979.
A partial lunar eclipse on Tuesday, 13 March 1979.
An annular solar eclipse on Wednesday, 22 August 1979.
A total lunar eclipse on Thursday, 6 September 1979.

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1977–1980
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Gamma	Saros	Date viewing	Type chart	Gamma
112	1977 Apr 04	Partial	−0.91483	117	1977 Sep 27	Penumbral	1.07682
122	1978 Mar 24	Total	−0.21402	127	1978 Sep 16	Total	0.29510
132	1979 Mar 13	Partial	0.52537	137	1979 Sep 06	Total	−0.43050
142	1980 Mar 01	Penumbral	1.22701	147	1980 Aug 26	Penumbral	−1.16082

Last set	1976 May 13			Last set	1976 Nov 06

Next set	1981 Jan 20			Next set	1980 Jul 27

Saros series

Lunar saros series 132, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 71 lunar eclipse events including 44 umbral lunar eclipses (32 partial lunar eclipses and 12 total lunar eclipses).

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2123 Jun 9, lasting 106 minutes.^[1]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1492 May 12	1636 Aug 16	2015 Apr 4	2069 May 6
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2177 Jul 11	2213 Aug 2	2429 Dec 11	2754 Jun 26

There are 11 series events between 1901 and 2100, grouped into threes (called an exeligmos), each column with approximately the same viewing longitude on earth.

Half-Saros cycle

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[2] This lunar eclipse is related to two total solar eclipses of Solar Saros 139.