Two solar and two lunar eclipses occur in 1996. Although the solar eclipses are only partial, both lunar eclipses are total events.
World maps show the regions of visibility for each eclipse.
The lunar eclipse diagrams also include the path of the Moon through Earth's shadows. Contact times for each principal phase are tabulated along with the magnitudes and geocentric coordinates of the Sun and Moon at greatest eclipse. Spica lies about eight degrees to the southeast of the Moon and will shine prominently during totality. This is a relatively deep total eclipse, especially for the Moon's northern limb which passes through the centre of Earth's umbral shadow. At this time, the umbral magnitude peaks at 1.3845 as the Moon's northern limb passes through the shadow's axis.