Nature Total Magnitude 1.0379 Max. width of band 175 km (109 mi) Start date July 10, 1972 | Gamma 0.6872 Duration 156 sec (2 m 36 s) Greatest eclipse 19:46:38 | |
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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.
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It was visible as a total eclipse across northeastern Asia and northern Canada, and as a partial eclipse across the United States.
Solar eclipses of 1971-1974
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.
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.
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).
In popular culture
Carly Simon's December 1972 pop hit "You're So Vain" contains the lyric "Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun." As she started writing lyrics that would become this song on a napkin as far back as 1971, the lyrics cannot possibly have been a reference to this eclipse, but only to the one whose path of totality also crossed Nova Scotia two years earlier, on March 7, 1970.