Nature Hybrid Magnitude 1 Max. width of band 1 km (0.62 mi) Start date October 3, 1986 | Gamma 0.9931 Duration 0 sec (0 m 0 s) Greatest eclipse 19:06:15 | |
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A total solar eclipse occurred on October 3, 1986. It was a hybrid event (normally, an eclipse which is annular for most of its duration, but with totality either at the beginning, end or at sometime during the eclipse) that did not officially satisfy the definition of totality. Totality occurred for a very short time (calculated at 0.2 seconds) in an area in the Atlantic Ocean, just east of the southern tip of Greenland. The path, on the surface of the Earth, was a narrow, tapered, horse-shoe, and visible only from a thin strip between Iceland and Greenland. At maximum eclipse the solar elevation was about 6°.
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This eclipse was the last central eclipse of saros 124 and the only hybrid eclipse of that saros.
Solar eclipses of 1986-1989
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.
Metonic cycle
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).