Nature Annular Magnitude 0.9954 Max. width of band 16 km (9.9 mi) Start date March 18, 1969 | Gamma -0.2704 Duration 26 sec (0 m 26 s) Greatest eclipse 4:54:57 | |
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An annular solar eclipse occurred on 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.
Contents
Solar eclipses of 1968-1971
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 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 on April 8, 2005 and 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 .
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).