Solar eclipse of January 25, 1963
20th-century annular solar eclipse / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An annular solar eclipse occurred on January 25, 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. 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. The path of annularity crossed Chile, Argentina, South Africa, southern Basutoland (today's Lesotho) and Malagasy Republic (today's Madagascar). Occurring 3.7 days before perigee (Perigee on January 29, 1963), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The moon was 374,860 km (232,927 mi) from the Earth.
Solar eclipse of January 25, 1963 | |
---|---|
Type of eclipse | |
Nature | Annular |
Gamma | −0.4898 |
Magnitude | 0.9951 |
Maximum eclipse | |
Duration | 25 s (0 min 25 s) |
Coordinates | 48.2°S 15°W / -48.2; -15 |
Max. width of band | 20 km (12 mi) |
Times (UTC) | |
Greatest eclipse | 13:37:12 |
References | |
Saros | 140 (26 of 71) |
Catalog # (SE5000) | 9426 |
The moon's apparent diameter was 4.8 arcseconds larger than the July 20, 1963 total solar eclipse. This was an annular solar eclipse because it occurred in January and in January the earth is near its perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).