A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18, 1988, with a magnitude of 1.0464. 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. Occurring only 1.1 days after perigee (on March 16, 1988, at 20:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Totality was visible in Indonesia and southern Philippines. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Australia, and Alaska.

Observation The tourism office of the General Santos City government in the Philippines promoted it as a big tourism event. Hordes of scientists, astronomers, journalists, TV crews and tourists from all over the globe observed the totality from there. Then President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino also joined in to experience the event.

Eclipse timing Places experiencing total eclipse Solar Eclipse of March 18, 1988(Local Times)Country or territory City or placeStart of partial eclipseStart of total eclipseMaximum eclipseEnd of total eclipseEnd of partial eclipseDuration of totality (min:s)Duration of eclipse (hr:min)Maximum magnitude Bengkulu 06:28:06 07:27:48 07:28:13 07:28:38 08:35:13 0:50 2:07 1.0016 Palembang 06:29:06 07:29:25 07:30:29 07:31:33 08:39:01 2:08 2:10 1.0114 Pangkalpinang 06:30:09 07:31:15 07:32:19 07:33:24 08:41:47 2:09 2:12 1.0107 Ketapang 06:31:29 07:34:36 07:35:33 07:36:30 08:47:12 1:54 2:16 1.0067 General Santos 07:51:25 09:03:26 09:05:06 09:06:45 10:26:06 3:19 2:35 1.0201 Davao City 07:53:23 09:06:05 09:07:29 09:08:53 10:28:48 2:48 2:35 1.0103References:

Places experiencing partial eclipse Solar Eclipse of March 18, 1988(Local Times)Country or territory City or placeStart of partial eclipseMaximum eclipseEnd of partial eclipseDuration of eclipse (hr:min)Maximum coverage Bantam 06:06:20 (sunrise) 06:49:31 07:50:15 1:44 71.81% Flying Fish Cove 06:24:52 07:23:59 08:29:27 2:05 74.15% Jakarta 06:27:04 07:28:30 08:36:58 2:10 89.36% Singapore 07:33:27 08:34:48 09:43:19 2:10 88.59% Kuala Lumpur 07:35:32 08:35:42 09:42:47 2:07 80.62% Dili 07:36:54 08:42:29 09:54:22 2:17 56.51% Chennai 06:14:29 (sunrise) 06:16:42 07:02:26 0:48 42.73% Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 06:15:33 (sunrise) 06:17:44 06:58:31 0:43 52.04% Bangkok 06:53:12 07:49:39 08:51:57 1:59 47.93% Bandar Seri Begawan 07:42:10 08:49:50 10:05:19 2:23 89.35% Phnom Penh 06:49:53 07:50:01 08:56:46 2:07 57.37% Ho Chi Minh City 06:48:52 07:50:27 08:58:52 2:10 61.34% Yangon 06:29:07 07:21:18 08:18:28 1:49 37.62% Hanoi 07:10:57 08:07:02 09:08:18 1:57 35.45% Manila 08:03:39 09:14:47 10:32:41 2:29 72.34% Hong Kong 08:17:16 09:19:46 10:27:43 2:10 42.93% Ngerulmud 09:04:35 10:22:12 11:45:18 2:41 85.04% Colonia 10:13:06 11:32:01 12:55:22 2:42 80.89% Taipei 08:28:06 09:35:55 10:48:35 2:20 49.70% Shanghai 08:43:37 09:47:36 10:55:15 2:12 38.48% Hagåtña 10:31:26 11:51:33 13:13:52 2:42 71.86% Saipan 10:36:16 11:56:52 13:19:09 2:43 73.35% Seoul 10:02:32 11:07:04 12:13:50 2:11 38.02% Tokyo 10:08:08 11:23:34 12:39:37 2:31 67.97% Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky 13:54:53 15:02:09 16:07:26 2:13 61.43% Whitehorse 18:31:03 19:04:20 19:08:43 (sunset) 0:38 47.45% Anadyr 14:14:38 15:12:29 16:08:36 1:54 48.91% Dawson City 18:28:30 19:21:11 19:26:05 (sunset) 0:58 66.47% Anchorage 17:27:55 18:25:36 19:08:07 (sunset) 1:40 75.51% Unalaska 17:23:09 18:26:59 19:27:15 2:04 95.58%References:

Eclipse details Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

+March 18, 1988 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1988 March 17 at 23:24:58.4 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1988 March 18 at 00:23:32.6 UTC First Central Line 1988 March 18 at 00:24:27.6 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 1988 March 18 at 00:25:22.6 UTC First Penumbral Internal Contact 1988 March 18 at 01:38:59.5 UTC Greatest Duration 1988 March 18 at 01:57:26.1 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1988 March 18 at 01:58:56.4 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1988 March 18 at 02:03:15.6 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1988 March 18 at 02:23:10.7 UTC Last Penumbral Internal Contact 1988 March 18 at 02:18:20.1 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 1988 March 18 at 03:32:16.8 UTC Last Central Line 1988 March 18 at 03:33:10.6 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1988 March 18 at 03:34:04.3 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1988 March 18 at 04:32:47.6 UTC

+March 18, 1988 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.04640 Eclipse Obscuration 1.09496 Gamma 0.41879 Sun Right Ascension 23h51m32.0s Sun Declination -00°55'03.0" Sun Semi-Diameter 16'04.1" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8" Moon Right Ascension 23h50m42.6s Moon Declination -00°32'52.0" Moon Semi-Diameter 16'33.4" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°00'45.8" ΔT 55.9 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

+ Eclipse season of March 1988 March 3Descending node (full moon) March 18Ascending node (new moon) Penumbral lunar eclipseLunar Saros 113 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 139

Related eclipses Eclipses in 1988 A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 3. A total solar eclipse on March 18. A partial lunar eclipse on August 27. An annular solar eclipse on September 11.

Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 30, 1984 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 4, 1992

Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 4, 1981 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 29, 1995

Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1979 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 24, 1997

Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1977 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999

Solar Saros 139 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970 Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006

Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 1959 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017

Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 18, 1901 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 16, 2075

Solar eclipses of 1986–1989

Saros 139

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

Notes

References

External links

Foto Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988

Photos: The 1988 Eclipse in The Philippines