A total lunar eclipse took place on April 13, 1968.

Visibility

Related lunar eclipses

Lunar year series (354 days)

Lunar eclipse series sets from 1966–1969
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma	Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
111	1966 May 4	Penumbral	1.05536	116	1966 Oct 29	Penumbral	−1.05999
121	1967 Apr 24	Total	0.29722	126	1967 Oct 18	Total	−0.36529
131	1968 Apr 13	Total	−0.41732	136	1968 Oct 6	Total	0.36054
141	1969 Apr 2	Penumbral	−1.17648	146	1969 Sep 25	Penumbral	1.06558

Last set	1965 Jun 14			Last set	1965 Dec 8

Next set	1970 Feb 21			Next set	1969 Aug 27

Saros series

It is the second total lunar eclipse of the series.

Lunar Saros series 131, has 72 lunar eclipses. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

This eclipse series began in AD 1427 with a partial eclipse at the southern edge of the Earth's shadow when the Moon was close to its descending node. Each successive Saros cycle, the Moon's orbital path is shifted northward with respect to the Earth's shadow, with the first total eclipse occurring in 1950. For the following 252 years, total eclipses occur, with the central eclipse being predicted to occur in 2078. The first partial eclipse after this is predicted to occur in the year 2220, and the final partial eclipse of the series will occur in 2707. The total lifetime of the lunar Saros series 131 is 1280 years. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Because of the ⅓ fraction of days in a Saros cycle, the visibility of each eclipse will differ for an observer at a given fixed locale. For the lunar Saros series 131, the first total eclipse of 1950 had its best visibility for viewers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East because mid-eclipse was at 20:44 UT. The following eclipse in the series occurred approximately 8 hours later in the day with mid-eclipse at 4:47 UT, and was best seen from North America and South America. The third total eclipse occurred approximately 8 hours later in the day than the second eclipse with mid-eclipse at 12:43 UT, and had its best visibility for viewers in the Western Pacific, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This cycle of visibility repeats from the initiation to termination of the series, with minor variations. Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Lunar Saros series 131, repeating every 18 years and 11 days, has a total of 72 lunar eclipse events including 57 umbral lunar eclipses (42 partial lunar eclipses and 15 total lunar eclipses). Solar Saros 138 interleaves with this lunar saros with an event occurring every 9 years 5 days alternating between each saros series.

Greatest	First
The greatest eclipse of the series will occur on 2094 Jun 28, lasting 102 minutes.^[1]	Penumbral	Partial	Total	Central
	1427 May 10	1553 July 25	1950 Apr 2	2022 May 16
	Last
	Central	Total	Partial	Penumbral
	2148 Jul 31	2202 Sep 3	2563 Apr 9	2707 Jul 7

Inex series

The Inex series repeat eclipses 20 days short of 29 years, repeating on average every 10571.95 days. This period is equal to 358 lunations (synodic months) and 388.5 draconic months. Saros series increment by one on successive Inex events and repeat at alternate ascending and descending lunar nodes.

This period is 383.6734 anomalistic months (the period of the moon's elliptical orbital precession). Despite the average 0.05 time-of-day shift between subsequent events, this variation of position in the elliptical orbit. This effects both the timing of the eclipse by a number of hours and the exact path the moons moves through the earth's shadow.

Series events from 1500-2500
Decending node				Ascending node
Saros	Date	Chart	View	Saros	Date	Chart	View
115	1505 Feb 18			116	1534 Jan 30
117	1563 Jan 09			118	1591 Dec 30
119	1620 Dec 09			120	1649 Nov 19
121	1678 Oct 29			122	1707 Oct 11
123	1736 Sep 20			124	1765 Aug 30
125	1794 Aug 11			126	1823 Jul 23
127	1852 Jul 01			128	1881 Jun 12
129	1910 May 24			130	2029 Jun 26
131	2058 Jun 06			132	2087 May 17
133	2116 April 27		134	2145 Apr 07
135	2174 Mar 18			136	2203 Feb 26
137	2232 Feb 07			138	2261 Jan 17
139	2289 Dec 27			140	2318 Dec 09
141	2347 Nov 19			142	2376 Oct 28
143	2405 Oct 08			144	2434 Sep 18
145	2263 Aug 29			146	2492 Aug 08
147	2521 Jul 21