A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday, March 24, 1978, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 1978. The moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow. The Moon was plunged into darkness for 1 hour, 30 minutes and 40.2 seconds, in a deep total eclipse which saw the Moon 45.179% of its diameter inside the Earth's umbral shadow. The visual effect of this depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere, but the Moon may have been stained a deep red colour. The partial eclipse lasted for 3 hours, 38 minutes and 34.5 seconds in total.^[1]

This is the 54th member of Lunar Saros 122. The previous event is the March 1960 lunar eclipse. The next event is the April 1996 lunar eclipse.

It was seen completely over Asia and Australia, and rising over Africa and Europe. It was seen setting over Pacific Ocean on the morning of Friday 24 March, 1978.

• A total lunar eclipse on Friday, 24 March 1978.
• A partial solar eclipse on Friday, 7 April 1978.
• A total lunar eclipse on Saturday, 16 September 1978.
• A partial solar eclipse on Monday, 2 October 1978.

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

The tritos series repeats 31 days short of 11 years at alternating nodes. Sequential events have incremental Saros cycle indices.

This series produces 20 total eclipses between April 24, 1967 and August 11, 2185, only being partial on November 19, 2021.

Tritos eclipse series (subset 1901–2087)
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart		Saros	Date Viewing	Type chart
115	1901 Oct 27	Partial		116	1912 Sep 26	Partial
117	1923 Aug 26	Partial		118	1934 Jul 26	Partial
119	1945 Jun 25	Partial		120	1956 May 24	Partial
121	1967 Apr 24	Total		122	1978 Mar 24	Total
123	1989 Feb 20	Total		124	2000 Jan 21	Total
125	2010 Dec 21	Total		126	2021 Nov 19	Partial
127	2032 Oct 18	Total		128	2043 Sep 19	Total
129	2054 Aug 18	Total		130	2065 Jul 17	Total
131	2076 Jun 17	Total		132	2087 May 17	Total
133	2098 Apr 15	Total

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 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 129.

March 18, 1969	March 29, 1987

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 20th-century lunar eclipses

• 1978 Mar 24 chart Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC