Nature Annular Magnitude 0.9634 Max. width of band 137 km (85 mi) Start date September 23, 1987 | Gamma 0.2787 Duration 229 sec (3 m 49 s) Greatest eclipse 3:12:22 | |
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An annular solar eclipse occurred on September 23, 1987. 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 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.
Saros 134
It is a part of Saros cycle 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on June 22, 1248. It contains total eclipses from October 9, 1428 through December 24, 1554 and hybrid eclipses from January 3, 1573 through June 27, 1843, and annular eclipses from July 8, 1861 through May 21, 2384. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. The longest duration of totality was 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428.