Solar eclipse of July 10, 1972

Solar eclipse of July 10, 1972
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature Total
Gamma 0.6872
Magnitude 1.0379
Maximum eclipse
Duration 156 sec (2 m 36 s)
Coordinates 63°30′N 94°12′W / 63.5°N 94.2°W / 63.5; -94.2
Max. width of band 175 km (109 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse 19:46:38
References
Saros 126 (45 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000) 9448

A total solar eclipse occurred on July 10, 1972. 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.

It was visible as a total eclipse along a path of totality that began in Sea of Okhotsk which is to the north of Japan and traversed the far eastern portions of the Soviet Union (which now belongs to Russia), northern Alaska in the United States, Northern Canada, eastern Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes. A partial eclipse was visible over Siberia, Canada and the northern and eastern United States.

Solar eclipses of 1971-1974

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.[1]

Note: Partial solar eclipses on February 25, 1971 and August 20, 1971 occur in the next lunar year set.

Saros 126

It is a part of Saros cycle 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on March 10, 1179. It contains annular eclipses from June 4, 1323 through April 4, 1810 and hybrid eclipses from April 14, 1828 through May 6, 1864. It contains total eclipses from May 17, 1882 through August 23, 2044. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on May 3, 2459. The longest duration of central eclipse (annular or total) was 5 minutes, 46 seconds of annularity on November 22, 1593. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 36 seconds on July 10, 1972.[2]

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days).

"You're So Vain"

The eclipse is referenced in the lyrics of Carly Simon's 1972 hit song "You're So Vain." The subject of the song, after witnessing his racehorse win "naturally" at the Saratoga Race Course, flies his Learjet to Nova Scotia to see the eclipse; Simon uses the two phenomena as examples of how the subject seems to be "where (he) should be all the time." Simon released the song four months after the eclipse.

Notes

  1. ↑ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  2. ↑ Solar_Saros_series_126, accessed October 2010

References

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