March 1979 lunar eclipse
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.
| Partial Lunar Eclipse March 13, 1979 | |
|---|---|
| (No photo) | |
|  The moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals. | |
| Series | 132 (28 of 71) | 
| Duration (hr:mn:sc) | |
| Partial | 3:17:40.6 | 
| Penumbral | 5:50:42.8 | 
| Contacts | |
| P1 | 18:12:39.6 UTC | 
| U1 | 19:29:13.7 | 
| Greatest | 21:08:02.3 | 
| U4 | 22:46:54.4 | 
| P4 | 00:03:22.4 (Mar 14) | 
This event followed the total solar eclipse of February 26, 1979.
Visibility
    

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.
| 1907 Jan 29 | 1925 Feb 8 | 1943 Feb 20 | |||
|  |  |  |  |  |  | 
| 1961 Mar 2 | 1979 Mar 13 | 1997 Mar 24 | |||
|  |  |  |  |  |  | 
| 2015 Apr 4 | 2033 Apr 14 | 2051 Apr 26 | |||
|  |  |  |  |  |  | 
| 2069 May 6 | 2087 May 17 | ||||
|  |  |  |  | ||
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.
| March 7, 1970 | March 18, 1988 | 
|---|---|
|  |  | 
Notes
    
- Listing of Eclipses of series 132
- Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Jean Meeus, p.110, Chapter 18, The half-saros



