Solar eclipse of August 22, 1979

An annular solar eclipse occurred on August 22, 1979. 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. A small annular eclipse covered only 93% of the Sun in a very broad path, 953 km wide at maximum, and lasted 6 minutes and 3 seconds. This was the second solar eclipse in 1979, the first one a total solar eclipse on February 26.

Solar eclipse of August 22, 1979
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma-0.9632
Magnitude0.9329
Maximum eclipse
Duration363 sec (6 m 3 s)
Coordinates59.6°S 108.5°W / -59.6; -108.5
Max. width of band953 km (592 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse17:22:38
References
Saros125 (52 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)9463

This was the last of 40 umbral eclipses of Solar Saros 125. The first was in 1276 and the last was in 1979. The total duration is 703 years.

Solar eclipses 1979–1982

Each member 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.

Saros 125

Solar saros 125, repeating every about 18 years and 11 days, contains 73 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on February 4, 1060. It has total eclipses from June 13, 1276, to July 16, 1330. It has hybrid eclipses on July 26, 1348, and August 7, 1366, and annular eclipses from August 17, 1384, to August 22, 1979. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on April 9, 2358. The longest total eclipse occurred on June 25, 1294, at 1 minute and 11 seconds; the longest annular eclipse occurred on July 10, 1907, at 7 minutes and 23 seconds.[1]

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. Saros Series Catalog of Solar Eclipses NASA Eclipse Web Site.

References
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