Summary
An annular solar eclipse occurred on July 31, 1962. 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. Occurring only 4.7 days before apogee (Apogee on August 5, 1962), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. This solar eclipse occurred 44 days after the final game of 1962 FIFA World Cup.
| Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962 | |
|---|---|
 Map | |
| Type of eclipse | |
| Nature | Annular |
| Gamma | −0.113 |
| Magnitude | 0.9716 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 213 s (3 min 33 s) |
| Coordinates | 12°00′N 5°42′W / 12°N 5.7°W |
| Max. width of band | 103 km (64 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 12:25:33 |
| References | |
| Saros | 135 (36 of 71) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9425 |
Places inside the annular eclipse included Venezuela, northern Roraima in Brazil, Guyana, Dutch Guiana (today's Suriname) including the capital city Paramaribo, Senegal, Gambia Colony and Protectorate (today's Gambia) including the southern part of the capital city Banjul, Mali including the capital city Bamako, Upper Volta (today's Burkina Faso), Ghana, Togo, Dahomey (today's Benin), Nigeria, Cameroon including the capital city Yaoundé, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Léopoldville (today's DR Congo), Tanganyika (now belonging to Tanzania), northeastern tip of Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), French Comoros (today's Comoros), Mayotte, and the Malagasy Republic (today's Madagascar). The greatest eclipse was in the area of Kouoro, Mali at 12 N, 5.7 W at 12:25 (UTC) and lasted for 3 minutes.[1]
Related eclipses edit
Solar eclipses of 1961–1964 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.[2]
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1961 to 1964 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |||
| 120 |  1961 February 15 Total |
0.88302 | 125 |  1961 August 11 Annular |
-0.88594 | |||
| 130 |  1962 February 05 Total |
0.21066 | 135 |  1962 July 31Annular -0.11296 140  1963 January 25 Annular |
-0.48984 | 145 |  1963 July 20 Total |
0.65710 |
| 150 |  1964 January 14 Partial |
-1.23541 | 155 |  1964 July 09 Partial |
1.36228 | |||
| Partial solar eclipses of June 10, 1964 and December 4, 1964 belong in the next lunar year set. | ||||||||
Saros 135 edit
It is a part of Saros cycle 135, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on July 5, 1331. It contains annular eclipses from October 21, 1511 through February 24, 2305, hybrid eclipses on March 8, 2323 and March 18, 2341 and total eclipses from March 29, 2359 through May 22, 2449. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 17, 2593. The longest duration of totality will be 2 minutes, 27 seconds on May 12, 2431.
| Series members 27–43 occur between 1800 and 2100: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 27 | 28 | 29 |
 Apr 24, 1800 |
 May 5, 1818 |
 May 15, 1836 |
| 30 | 31 | 32 |
 May 26, 1854 |
 Jun 6, 1872 |
 Jun 17, 1890 |
| 33 | 34 | 35 |
 Jun 28, 1908 |
 Jul 9, 1926 |
 Jul 20, 1944 |
| 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Jul 31, 1962 |
 Aug 10, 1980 |
 Aug 22, 1998 |
| 39 | 40 | 41 |
 Sep 1, 2016 |
 Sep 12, 2034 |
 Sep 22, 2052 |
| 42 | 43 | |
 Oct 4, 2070 |
 Oct 14, 2088 | |
Inex series edit
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. In the 18th century:
- Solar Saros 127: Total Solar Eclipse of 1731 Jan 08
- Solar Saros 128: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1759 Dec 19
- Solar Saros 129: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1788 Nov 27
| Inex series members between 1801 and 2200: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near lunar perigee | After lunar apogee Before lunar perigee |
Before lunar apogee After lunar perigee | ||
 November 9, 1817 (Saros 130) |
 October 20, 1846 (Saros 131) |
 September 29, 1875 (Saros 132) | ||
 September 9, 1904 (Saros 133) |
 August 21, 1933 (Saros 134) |
July 31, 1962(Saros 135)  July 11, 1991 (Saros 136) |
 June 21, 2020 (Saros 137) |
 May 31, 2049 (Saros 138) |
 May 11, 2078 (Saros 139) |
 April 23, 2107 (Saros 140) |
 April 1, 2136 (Saros 141) | ||
 March 12, 2165 (Saros 142) |
 February 21, 2194 (Saros 143) |
|||
In the 23rd century:
- Solar Saros 144: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2223 Feb 01
- Solar Saros 145: Total Solar Eclipse of 2252 Jan 12
- Solar Saros 146: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2280 Dec 22
Metonic series edit
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 24, 1916 and July 31, 2000 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 24–25 | October 12–13 | July 31-Aug 1 | May 18–20 | March 7–8 |
| 91 | 93 | 95 | 97 | 99 |
| December 23, 1878 | October 12, 1882 | July 31, 1886 | May 18, 1890 | March 7, 1894 |
| 101 | 103 | 105 | 107 | 109 |
| December 23, 1897 | October 12, 1901 | August 1, 1905 | May 19, 1909 | March 8, 1913 |
| 111 | 113 | 115 | 117 | 119 |
 December 24, 1916 |
October 12, 1920 |  July 31, 1924 |
 May 19, 1928 |
 March 7, 1932 |
| 121 | 123 | 125 | 127 | 129 |
 December 25, 1935 |
 October 12, 1939 |
 August 1, 1943 |
 May 20, 1947 |
 March 7, 1951 |
| 131 | 133 | 135 | 137 | 139 |
 December 25, 1954 |
 October 12, 1958 |
July 31, 1962  May 20, 1966 |
 March 7, 1970 | |
| 141 | 143 | 145 | 147 | 149 |
 December 24, 1973 |
 October 12, 1977 |
 July 31, 1981 |
 May 19, 1985 |
 March 7, 1989 |
| 151 | 153 | 155 | 157 | 159 |
 December 24, 1992 |
 October 12, 1996 |
 July 31, 2000 |
May 19, 2004 | March 7, 2008 |
| 161 | 163 | 165 | 167 | 169 |
| December 24, 2011 | October 13, 2015 | August 1, 2019 | May 19, 2023 | March 8, 2027 |
Notes edit
References edit
- Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
- Google interactive map
- Besselian elements