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 s (1 min 40 s)
Coordinates	61°42′N119°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.

Observations

Mamoru Mohri, Japanese scientist and former NASDA astronaut, who was 15 years old and living in Hokkaido at the time, said that seeing this total solar eclipse made him want to become a scientist ^[2] .

Scientists from the Dominion Observatory, University of Oxford, National Research Council Canada and University of Saskatchewan flew a Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft to observe the total eclipse at 30,000 feet (9,100 m) above the Great Slave Lake area. Due to the lack of navigation system in the area, the plane had to fly directly from Ottawa to Fort Simpson and then back to Ottawa, taking about 13 hours in total. On July 20, thin clouds in the Great Slave Lake area expanded to an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,000 m), so no results were got from optical observations, but the instruments installed on the aircraft still recorded data. In addition, wind speeds of nearly 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph) also caused the aircraft to enter the Moon's umbra one minute ahead of schedule, west of the planned location ^[3] . In addition, scientists from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada also made radio observations in Grand-Mère, Quebec ^{[4] [5]} .

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. ^[6]

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 is mentioned in passing in John Updike' s novel Couples (1968) in relation to Piet and Foxy.

The eclipse was featured in the season 3 episode of Mad Men entitled "Seven Twenty Three" (2009, S03E07). ^[7]

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. ^[8]

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 31 Annular	-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 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).

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

Notes

1. Smiley, Charles H. (February 1964). "Racing the Moon's Shadow on July 20, 1963". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 58 (1): 10–12. Bibcode:1964JRASC..58...10S. The United States Air Force provided an F-104D, a Starfighter made by Lockheed, and Major William A. Cato piloted the plane from Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico to Uplands Airport, Ottawa. Since the duration of totality depends on the difference between the speed of the plane and the speed of the moon's shadow, we elected to fly north-west to meet the shadow, then turn and increase speed so that we would reach our maximum speed at 42,000 feet as the shadow overtook us and we continued to climb, attaining 48,000 feet as the shadow left us.
2. "毛利衛さん宇宙特別授業「宇宙からの贈りもの」". バンクーバー新報 (in Japanese). October 14, 2011.
3. "Operation Eclipse-1963 (An Airborne Expedition to Observe the Total Eclipse of the Sun of July 20, 1963)". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 57 (6): 241–252. December 1963. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017.
4. Covington, A. E., Kennedy, W. A. G., & Gagnon, H. P. A. "2700 Mc/s Radio Observations of the Sun During the Total Eclipse of July 20, 1963". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 60: 215–220. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017.
5. "Past Solar Eclipses & Expeditions". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016.
6. Schulz, Charles (July 20, 1963). "Peanuts by Charles Schulz for July 20, 1963 | GoComics.com". GoComics. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
7. AMC (2011). Episode 7: Seven Twenty Three (Details tab). Originally retrieved from http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/episodes/season-3/seven-twenty-three. Archived on 2011-04-11 at https://web.archive.org/web/20110411231230/http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men/episodes/season-3/seven-twenty-three.
8. van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved October 6, 2018.

References

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