| Penumbral eclipse | |||||||||
| Date | 3 March 1988 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 0.98855 | ||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.09076 | ||||||||
| Saros cycle | 113 (62 of 71) | ||||||||
| Penumbral | 293 minutes, 50.6 seconds | ||||||||
| |||||||||
A penumbral lunar eclipse took place on Thursday, March 3, 1988, the first of two lunar eclipses in 1988, the second being on August 27, 1988.[1] Earlier sources compute this as a 0.3% partial eclipse lasting under 14 minutes, and newest calculations list it as a penumbral eclipse that never enters the umbral shadow. In a rare total penumbral eclipse, the entire Moon was partially shaded by the Earth (though none of it was in complete shadow), and the shading across the Moon should have been quite visible at maximum eclipse. The penumbral phase lasted for 4 hours, 53 minutes and 50.6 seconds in all, though for most of it, the eclipse was extremely difficult or impossible to see. The Moon was 2.2 days after apogee (Apogee on Tuesday, March 1, 1988), making it 6.1% smaller than average.[2]
This was a relatively rare total penumbral lunar eclipse with the moon passing entirely within the penumbral shadow without entering the darker umbral shadow.