Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988

Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.4188
Magnitude	1.0464
Maximum eclipse
Duration	226 sec (3 m 46 s)
Coordinates	Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Max. width of band	169 km (105 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	1:58:56
References
Saros	139 (28 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9482

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A total solar eclipse occurred on March 18, 1988. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1986-1989

Each member in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1986-1989
Saros	Map	Saros	Map
Ascending node		Descending node
119	April 9, 1986 Partial	124	October 3, 1986 Hybrid
129	March 29, 1987 Hybrid	134	September 23, 1987 Annular
139	March 18, 1988 Total	144	September 11, 1988 Annular
149	March 7, 1989 Partial	154	August 31, 1989 Partial

Saros 139

It is a part of saros series 139, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 17, 1501. It contains hybrid eclipses on August 11, 1627 through December 9, 1825 and total eclipses from December 21, 1843 through March 26, 2601. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 3, 2763. Members in the same column are one exeligmos apart and thus occur in the same geographic area.

The solar eclipse of June 13, 2132 will be the longest total solar eclipse since July 11, 1991 at 6 minutes, 55 seconds.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 39 at 7 minutes, 29 seconds on July 16, 2186.^[1] This is the longest solar eclipse computed between 4000BC and 6000AD.^[2]

Series members 24-39 occur between 1901 and 2200:

24	25	26
February 3, 1916	February 14, 1934	February 25, 1952
27	28	29
March 7, 1970	March 18, 1988	March 29, 2006
30	31	32
April 8, 2024	April 20, 2042	April 30, 2060
33	34	35
May 11, 2078	May 22, 2096	June 3, 2114
36	37	38
June 13, 2132	June 25, 2150	July 5, 2168
39
July 16, 2186

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days).

This series has 21 eclipse events between August 12, 1942 and August 11, 2018.

August 10-12	May 30	March 18	January 4-5	October 23-24
115	117	119	121	123
August 12, 1942	May 30, 1946	March 18, 1950	January 5, 1954	October 23, 1957
125	127	129	131	133
August 11, 1961	150px May 30, 1965	March 18, 1969	January 4, 1973	October 23, 1976
135	137	139	141	143
August 10, 1980	May 30, 1984	March 18, 1988	January 4, 1992	October 24, 1995
145	147	149	151	153
August 11, 1999	May 31, 2003	March 19, 2007	January 4, 2011	October 23, 2014
155
August 11, 2018