March 1960 lunar eclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse March 13, 1960
(No photo)
The moon passes west to east (right to left) across the Earth's umbral shadow, shown in hourly intervals.
Series	122 (53 of 75)
Gamma	-0.1799
Magnitude	1.5145
Duration (hr:mn:sc)
Totality	1:33:59
Partial	3:39:23
Penumbral	5:44:47
Contacts UTC
P1	5:35:57
U1	6:38:39
U2	7:41:21
Greatest	8:28:21
U3	9:15:21
U4	10:18:03
P4	11:20:45

A total lunar eclipse took place on Sunday, March 13, 1960. The moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow.^[1]

This is the 53rd member of Lunar Saros 122. The next event is the March 1978 lunar eclipse.

This eclipse afforded astrophysicist Richard W. Shorthill the opportunity to make the first infrared pyrometric temperature scans of the lunar surface, and led to his discovery of the first lunar "hot spot" observed from Earth. Shorthill found that the temperature of the floor of the Tycho crater was 216° Kelvin (—57°C), significantly higher than the 160K (—113°C) in the area around the crater.^[2]

Visibility

It was visible from North America, seen rising from Australia, and eastern Asia, and setting from South America, western Europe and Africa.

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1958–1962
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
102	1958 Apr 04	Penumbral	-1.53805
112	1959 Mar 24	Partial	-0.87571	117	1959 Sep 17	Penumbral	1.02963
122	1960 Mar 13	Total	-0.17990	127	1960 Sep 05	Total	0.24219
132	1961 Mar 02	Partial	0.55406	137	1961 Aug 26	Partial	-0.48947
142	1962 Feb 19	Penumbral	1.25115	147	1962 Aug 15	Penumbral	-1.22104

Last set	1958 May 03			Last set	1958 Oct 27

Next set	1963 Jan 09			Next set	1962 Jul 17