Solar eclipse of July 20, 1963

Solar eclipse of July 20, 1963
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.6571
Magnitude	1.0224
Maximum eclipse
Duration	100 sec (1 m 40 s)
Coordinates	61°42′N 119°36′W / 61.7°N 119.6°W / 61.7; -119.6
Max. width of band	101 km (63 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	20:36:13
References
Saros	145 (19 of 77)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9427

A total solar eclipse occurred on July 20, 1963. 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 at least the same size as the Sun's or larger, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with a partial solar eclipse visible over the surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Totality was visible from Hokkaido in Japan and Kuril Islands in Soviet Union (now belonging to Russia) on July 21, and Alaska, and Maine in the United States and also Canada on July 20. Astronomer Charles H. Smiley observed the eclipse from a U.S. Air Force F-104D Starfighter supersonic aircraft that was "racing the moon's shadow" at 1,300 mph (2,100 km/h) extending the duration of totality to 4 minutes 3 seconds.^[1] The moon was 375,819 km (233,523 mi) from the Earth.

The moon's apparent diameter was 4.8 arcseconds smaller than the January 25, 1963 annular solar eclipse. This was a total solar eclipse because it occurred in July when the earth is near aphelion (furthest from the Sun). The moon's apparent diameter was just over 2.2% larger than the Sun's.

Occurring about 4.1 days after perigee (Perigee on July 16, 1963), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

In popular culture[]

The eclipse was featured in the comic strip Peanuts (July 15–20, 1963), with Linus demonstrating a safe way of observing the eclipse as opposed to looking directly at the eclipse. On the day the eclipse passed over his area, Linus was left helplessly standing in the rain with cloud cover entirely too thick to witness the eclipse.^[2]

This particular eclipse event plays an important part in two of Stephen King's novels, Gerald's Game (1992) and Dolores Claiborne (1992).^{[citation needed]}

The eclipse was featured in the season 3 episode of Mad Men entitled "Seven Twenty Three" (2009, S03E07).^[3]

Related eclipses[]

Tzolkinex[]

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1956

• Followed: Solar eclipse of August 31, 1970

Sar (Half-Saros), Lunar Saros 138[]

• Preceded: Lunar eclipse of July 16, 1954

• Followed: Lunar eclipse of July 26, 1972

Tritos[]

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of August 20, 1952

• Followed: Solar eclipse of June 20, 1974

Solar Saros 145[]

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of July 9, 1945

• Followed: Solar eclipse of July 31, 1981

Inex[]

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of August 10, 1934

• Followed: Solar eclipse of June 30, 1992

Solar eclipses of 1961–1964[]

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.^[4]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1961–1964
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
120	1961 February 15 Total		125	1961 August 11 Annular
130	1962 February 5 Total		135	1962 July 31 Annular
140	1963 January 25 Annular		145	1963 July 20 Total
150	1964 January 14 Partial		155	1964 July 9 Partial
Partial solar eclipses of June 10, 1964 and December 4, 1964 belong in the next lunar year set.

Saros 145[]

This solar eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 145, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours, containing 77 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on January 4, 1639, and reached a first annular eclipse on June 6, 1891. It was a hybrid event on June 17, 1909, and total eclipses from June 29, 1927, through September 9, 2648. The series ends at member 77 as a partial eclipse on April 17, 3009. The longest eclipse will occur on June 25, 2522, with a maximum duration of totality of 7 minutes, 12 seconds. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon's ascending node.

Series members 10–32 occur between 1801 and 2359
10	11	12
April 13, 1801	April 24, 1819	May 4, 1837
13	14	15
May 16, 1855	May 26, 1873	June 6, 1891
16	17	18
June 17, 1909	June 29, 1927	July 9, 1945
19	20	21
July 20, 1963	July 31, 1981	August 11, 1999
22	23	24
August 21, 2017	September 2, 2035	September 12, 2053
25	26	27
September 23, 2071	October 4, 2089	October 16, 2107
28	29	30
October 26, 2125	November 7, 2143	November 17, 2161
31	32	33
November 28, 2179	December 9, 2197	December 21, 2215
34	35	36
December 31, 2233	January 12, 2252	January 22, 2270
37	38	39
February 2, 2288	February 14, 2306	February 25, 2324
40
March 8, 2342

Inex series[]

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 19th century:

• Solar saros 140: total solar eclipse of October 29, 1818
• Solar saros 141: annular solar eclipse of October 9, 1847
• Solar saros 142: total solar eclipse of September 17, 1876

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
August 30, 1905 (Saros 143)	August 10, 1934 (Saros 144)	July 20, 1963 (Saros 145)
June 30, 1992 (Saros 146)	June 10, 2021 (Saros 147)	May 20, 2050 (Saros 148)
May 1, 2079 (Saros 149)

In the 22nd century:

• Solar saros 150: partial solar eclipse of April 11, 2108
• Solar saros 151: annular solar eclipse of March 21, 2137
• Solar saros 152: total solar eclipse of March 2, 2166
• Solar saros 153: annular solar eclipse of February 10, 2195

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).

21 eclipse events between July 21, 1906 and July 20, 1982
July 20–21	May 9	February 24–25	December 13–14	October 1–2
105	107	109	111	113
			December 13, 1898
115	117	119	121	123
July 21, 1906	May 9, 1910	February 25, 1914	December 14, 1917	October 1, 1921
125	127	129	131	133
July 20, 1925	May 9, 1929	February 24, 1933	December 13, 1936	October 1, 1940
135	137	139	141	143
July 20, 1944	May 9, 1948	February 25, 1952	December 14, 1955	October 2, 1959
145	147	149	151	153
July 20, 1963	May 9, 1967	February 25, 1971	December 13, 1974	October 2, 1978
155
July 20, 1982

Notes[]

References[]

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements

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