Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962

Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma−0.113
Magnitude0.9716
Maximum eclipse
Duration213 s (3 min 33 s)
Coordinates12°00′N 5°42′W / 12°N 5.7°W / 12; -5.7
Max. width of band103 km (64 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse12:25:33
References
Saros135 (36 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)9425

An annular solar eclipse occurred on July 31, 1962. 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. Occurring only 4.7 days before apogee (Apogee on August 5, 1962), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. This solar eclipse occurred 44 days after the final game of 1962 FIFA World Cup.

Places inside the annular eclipse included Venezuela, northern Roraima in Brazil, Guyana, Dutch Guiana (today's Suriname) including the capital city Paramaribo, Senegal, Gambia Colony and Protectorate (today's Gambia) including the southern part of the capital city Banjul, Mali including the capital city Bamako, Upper Volta (today's Burkina Faso), Ghana, Togo, Dahomey (today's Benin), Nigeria, Cameroon including the capital city Yaoundé, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Léopoldville (today's DR Congo), Tanganyika (now belonging to Tanzania), northeastern tip of Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), French Comoros (today's Comoros), Mayotte, and the Malagasy Republic (today's Madagascar). The greatest eclipse was in the area of Kouoro, Mali at 12 N, 5.7 W at 12:25 (UTC) and lasted for 3 minutes.[1]

Related eclipses[edit]

Solar eclipses of 1961–1964[edit]

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.[2]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1961 to 1964
Descending node   Ascending node
Saros Map Saros Map
120
1961 February 15
Total
125
1961 August 11
Annular
130
1962 February 5
Total
135
1962 July 31
Annular
140
1963 January 25
Annular
145
1963 July 20
Total
150
1964 January 14
Partial
155
1964 July 9
Partial
Partial solar eclipses of June 10, 1964 and December 4, 1964 belong in the next lunar year set.

Saros 135[edit]

It is a part of Saros cycle 135, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on July 5, 1331. It contains annular eclipses from October 21, 1511 through February 24, 2305, hybrid eclipses on March 8, 2323 and March 18, 2341 and total eclipses from March 29, 2359 through May 22, 2449. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 17, 2593. The longest duration of totality will be 2 minutes, 27 seconds on May 12, 2431.

Inex series[edit]

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings. In the 18th century:

  • Solar Saros 127: Total Solar Eclipse of 1731 Jan 08
  • Solar Saros 128: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1759 Dec 19
  • Solar Saros 129: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1788 Nov 27
Inex series members between 1801 and 2200:
Near lunar perigee After lunar apogee
Before lunar perigee
Before lunar apogee
After lunar perigee

November 9, 1817
(Saros 130)

October 20, 1846
(Saros 131)

September 29, 1875
(Saros 132)

September 9, 1904
(Saros 133)

August 21, 1933
(Saros 134)

July 31, 1962
(Saros 135)

July 11, 1991
(Saros 136)

June 21, 2020
(Saros 137)

May 31, 2049
(Saros 138)

May 11, 2078
(Saros 139)

April 23, 2107
(Saros 140)

April 1, 2136
(Saros 141)

March 12, 2165
(Saros 142)

February 21, 2194
(Saros 143)

In the 23rd century:

  • Solar Saros 144: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2223 Feb 01
  • Solar Saros 145: Total Solar Eclipse of 2252 Jan 12
  • Solar Saros 146: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2280 Dec 22

Metonic series[edit]

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.

22 eclipse events between December 24, 1916 and July 31, 2000
December 24–25 October 12–13 July 31-Aug 1 May 18–20 March 7–8
91 93 95 97 99
December 23, 1878 October 12, 1882 July 31, 1886 May 18, 1890 March 7, 1894
101 103 105 107 109
December 23, 1897 October 12, 1901 August 1, 1905 May 19, 1909 March 8, 1913
111 113 115 117 119

December 24, 1916
October 12, 1920
July 31, 1924

May 19, 1928

March 7, 1932
121 123 125 127 129

December 25, 1935

October 12, 1939

August 1, 1943

May 20, 1947

March 7, 1951
131 133 135 137 139

December 25, 1954

October 12, 1958

July 31, 1962

May 20, 1966

March 7, 1970
141 143 145 147 149

December 24, 1973

October 12, 1977

July 31, 1981

May 19, 1985

March 7, 1989
151 153 155 157 159

December 24, 1992

October 12, 1996

July 31, 2000
May 19, 2004 March 7, 2008
161 163 165 167 169
December 24, 2011 October 13, 2015 August 1, 2019 May 19, 2023 March 8, 2027

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962". NASA. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  2. ^ 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.

References[edit]