Solar eclipse of October 2, 1959 (original) (raw)

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Total eclipse

Solar eclipse of October 2, 1959
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature Total
Gamma 0.4207
Magnitude 1.0325
Maximum eclipse
Duration 182 s (3 min 2 s)
Coordinates 20°24′N 1°24′W / 20.4°N 1.4°W / 20.4; -1.4
Max. width of band 120 km (75 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse 12:27:00
References
Saros 143 (20 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000) 9419

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, October 2, 1959,[1] with a magnitude of 1.0325. 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. Occurring about 2.4 days before perigee (on October 4, 1959, at 21:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]

Totality was visible from northeastern Massachusetts and the southern tip of New Hampshire in the United States, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Spanish Sahara (today's West Sahara) including the capital city Laayoune, French Mauritania (today's Mauritania), Mali Federation (part now belonging to Mali), French Niger (today's Niger), British Nigeria (today's Nigeria), British Cameroons and French Cameroons (now belonging to Cameroon), French Chad (today's Chad) including the capital city Fort-Lamy, French Central Africa (today's Central African Republic), Sudan (part of the path of totality is now in South Sudan), Ethiopia, and the Trust Territory of Somaliland (today's Somalia). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of eastern North America, the eastern Caribbean, Europe, Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia.

Totality began over Boston, Massachusetts at sunrise. Viewing the eclipse was rained out, but it was reported that the brightening of the sky after the eclipse was a startling and impressive sight.[3] A few photographers captured the eclipse from airplanes above the clouds, and a multiple exposure was made atop the R. C. A. building in New York City.[4] The next total eclipse over Boston, the solar eclipse of May 1, 2079, will also be a sunrise event.[5]

The event was also observed at the Canarian Island of Fuerteventura by a team of Dutch astronomers of the university of Utrecht and Amsterdam.[6][7]

Maurice Allais, a French polymath, reported the alleged anomalous behavior of pendulums or gravimeters, later named as Allais effect. He first reported the effect after observing the solar eclipse of June 30, 1954, and reported another observation of the effect during this solar eclipse using the paraconical pendulum he invented.[8]

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[9]

October 2, 1959 Solar Eclipse Times

Event Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact 1959 October 02 at 09:49:42.6 UTC
First Umbral External Contact 1959 October 02 at 10:50:25.8 UTC
First Central Line 1959 October 02 at 10:50:55.8 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact 1959 October 02 at 10:51:25.7 UTC
First Penumbral Internal Contact 1959 October 02 at 12:08:39.3 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction 1959 October 02 at 12:12:52.0 UTC
Greatest Eclipse 1959 October 02 at 12:27:00.1 UTC
Greatest Duration 1959 October 02 at 12:29:26.6 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction 1959 October 02 at 12:31:24.6 UTC
Last Penumbral Internal Contact 1959 October 02 at 12:45:44.7 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact 1959 October 02 at 14:02:42.2 UTC
Last Central Line 1959 October 02 at 14:03:14.3 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact 1959 October 02 at 14:03:46.4 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact 1959 October 02 at 15:04:19.6 UTC

October 2, 1959 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter Value
Eclipse Magnitude 1.03251
Eclipse Obscuration 1.06608
Gamma 0.42075
Sun Right Ascension 12h31m27.3s
Sun Declination -03°23'42.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter 15'58.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8"
Moon Right Ascension 12h31m57.6s
Moon Declination -02°59'50.0"
Moon Semi-Diameter 16'15.2"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°59'39.0"
ΔT 33.0 s

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

Eclipse season of September–October 1959

September 17Descending node (full moon) October 2Ascending node (new moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipseLunar Saros 117 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 143

Solar eclipses of 1957–1960

[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.[10]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1957 to 1960
Descending node Ascending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
118 April 30, 1957Annular (non-central) 0.9992 123 October 23, 1957Total (non-central) 1.0022
128 April 19, 1958Annular 0.275 133 October 12, 1958Total −0.2951
138 April 8, 1959Annular −0.4546 143 October 2, 1959Total 0.4207
148 March 27, 1960Partial −1.1537 153 September 20, 1960Partial 1.2057

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 143, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on March 7, 1617. It contains total eclipses from June 24, 1797 through October 24, 1995; hybrid eclipses from November 3, 2013 through December 6, 2067; and annular eclipses from December 16, 2085 through September 16, 2536. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on April 23, 2897. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 16 at 3 minutes, 50 seconds on August 19, 1887, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 51 at 4 minutes, 54 seconds on September 6, 2518. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.[11]

Series members 12–33 occur between 1801 and 2200:
12 13 14
July 6, 1815 July 17, 1833 July 28, 1851
15 16 17
August 7, 1869 August 19, 1887 August 30, 1905
18 19 20
September 10, 1923 September 21, 1941 October 2, 1959
21 22 23
October 12, 1977 October 24, 1995 November 3, 2013
24 25 26
November 14, 2031 November 25, 2049 December 6, 2067
27 28 29
December 16, 2085 December 29, 2103 January 8, 2122
30 31 32
January 20, 2140 January 30, 2158 February 10, 2176
33
February 21, 2194

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 13, 1898 and July 20, 1982
December 13–14 October 1–2 July 20–21 May 9 February 24–25
111 113 115 117 119
December 13, 1898 July 21, 1906 May 9, 1910 February 25, 1914
121 123 125 127 129
December 14, 1917 October 1, 1921 July 20, 1925 May 9, 1929 February 24, 1933
131 133 135 137 139
December 13, 1936 October 1, 1940 July 20, 1944 May 9, 1948 February 25, 1952
141 143 145 147 149
December 14, 1955 October 2, 1959 July 20, 1963 May 9, 1967 February 25, 1971
151 153 155
December 13, 1974 October 2, 1978 July 20, 1982

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.

The partial solar eclipses on December 18, 2188 (part of Saros 164) and November 18, 2199 (part of Saros 165) are also a part of this series but are not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2134
December 10, 1806(Saros 129) November 9, 1817(Saros 130) October 9, 1828(Saros 131) September 7, 1839(Saros 132) August 7, 1850(Saros 133)
July 8, 1861(Saros 134) June 6, 1872(Saros 135) May 6, 1883(Saros 136) April 6, 1894(Saros 137) March 6, 1905(Saros 138)
February 3, 1916(Saros 139) January 3, 1927(Saros 140) December 2, 1937(Saros 141) November 1, 1948(Saros 142) October 2, 1959(Saros 143)
August 31, 1970(Saros 144) July 31, 1981(Saros 145) June 30, 1992(Saros 146) May 31, 2003(Saros 147) April 29, 2014(Saros 148)
March 29, 2025(Saros 149) February 27, 2036(Saros 150) January 26, 2047(Saros 151) December 26, 2057(Saros 152) November 24, 2068(Saros 153)
October 24, 2079(Saros 154) September 23, 2090(Saros 155) August 24, 2101(Saros 156) July 23, 2112(Saros 157) June 23, 2123(Saros 158)
May 23, 2134(Saros 159)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
January 10, 1815(Saros 138) December 21, 1843(Saros 139) November 30, 1872(Saros 140)
November 11, 1901(Saros 141) October 21, 1930(Saros 142) October 2, 1959(Saros 143)
September 11, 1988(Saros 144) August 21, 2017(Saros 145) August 2, 2046(Saros 146)
July 13, 2075(Saros 147) June 22, 2104(Saros 148) June 3, 2133(Saros 149)
May 14, 2162(Saros 150) April 23, 2191(Saros 151)
  1. ^ "October 2, 1959 Total Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  3. ^ Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 54, p.43,
  4. ^ Sky and Telescope, Vol. XIX, No. 1, p. 4.
  5. ^ The Shadowy Details of Today's Solar Eclipse | Space
  6. ^ "Utrecht eclipse expeditions".
  7. ^ Report of the Netherlands expedition for the observation of the total solar eclipse on october 2, 1959. Houtgast, J., Proceedings of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 63, Nr. 5, p. 611 (1960)
  8. ^ Allais, Maurice (1959). "Should the Laws of Gravitation be Reconsidered?". Aero/Space Engineering. 9: 46–55.
  9. ^ "Total Solar Eclipse of 1959 Oct 02". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 143". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.