Solar eclipse of March 18, 1969

An annular solar eclipse occurred on Tuesday, March 18, 1969. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Annularity was visible from part of Indonesia, and two atolls (Faraulep and Gaferut) in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands which belongs to the Federated States of Micronesia now.

Solar eclipse of March 18, 1969
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma-0.2704
Magnitude0.9954
Maximum eclipse
Duration26 sec (0 m 26 s)
Coordinates14.8°S 116.3°E / -14.8; 116.3
Max. width of band16 km (9.9 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse4:54:57
References
Saros129 (49 of 80)
Catalog # (SE5000)9440

Solar eclipses of 1968–1971

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]

Saros 129

It is a part of Saros cycle 129, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 80 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on October 3, 1103. It contains annular eclipses on May 6, 1464 through March 18, 1969, hybrid eclipses from March 29, 1987 through April 20, 2023 and total eclipses from April 30, 2041 through July 26, 2185. The series ends at member 80 as a partial eclipse on February 21, 2528. The longest duration of totality was 3 minutes, 43 seconds on June 25, 2131 . All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s ascending node.[2]

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.

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. Espenak, F. "NASA Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 129". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

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