A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometers wide.
There are different types of solar eclipses:
- Total Solar Eclipse: Occurs when the Moon is close to the Earth and the Moon's shadow hits the Earth. To see the Total Solar Eclipse, one would have to be in the region of the Eclipse’s PATH OF TOTALITY. The maximum duration of Totality is 7m 31s.
- Partial Solar Eclipse: Occurs when the Moon's shadow misses the Earth but passes very close to it.
- Annular Eclipse: Occurs when the Moon's shadow hits the Earth but the Moon is far from the Earth, so it will not be large enough to cover the Sun completely. A ring of Sun remains around the Moon.
- Hybrid Eclipse: The Moon is at such a distance that the eclipse is Annular in some areas and Total in other areas.
Total eclipses are rare because they require the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and earth to line up exactly so that the moon obscures the sun completely.
The animation shows what the eclipse approximately looks like near the maximum point. The curvature of the Moon's path is due to the Earth's rotation.
How to Safely View a Solar Eclipse
The 1947 Total Solar Eclipse
A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, May 20, 1947, with a magnitude of 1.0557. Totality was visible from Chile including the capital city Santiago, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Liberia, French West Africa (the parts now belonging to Ivory Coast and Benin), British Gold Coast (today's Ghana) including capital Accra, French Togoland (today's Togo) including capital Lomé, British Nigeria (today's Nigeria) including capital Lagos, French Cameroons (now belonging to Cameroon), French Equatorial Africa (the parts now belonging to Central African Republic and R. Congo), Belgian Congo (today's DR Congo), British Uganda (today's Uganda), British Tanganyika (now belonging to Tanzania), and British Kenya (today's Kenya).
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The southern part of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia, and Iguazu Falls, one of the largest waterfalls systems in the world, lay in the path of totality.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada sent a team to Araxa, Brazil. On the morning of the eclipse day, the sky was covered with clouds. Although a slight part of sunlight was seen through the gaps in the clouds around the first contact (the beginning of the partial phase), the weather did not improve after that. The eclipse ended at noon, and the sky began to clear up in the afternoon. The team documented changes in winds and luminance of the sky.
Australian radio astronomers originally planned to go to Brazil to make radio observations to promote the development of radio astronomy in Australia. However, the shipping of the equipments could only be made via London at that time, and it was not made before the eclipse in the end, so the plan was not successful.
Eclipse Details
Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Eclipse Season | Occurs roughly every six months, lasting about 35 days. |
| Semester Series | This eclipse is a member of a semester series. |
| Saros Series | Part of Saros series 127, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 82 events. |
| Metonic Series | Repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), occurring on nearly the same calendar date. |
| Octon Subseries | Repeats every 3.8 years (1387.94 days), which is 1/5 of the metonic series. |
| Tritos Cycle | Repeats at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). |
| Inex Cycle | Repeats at alternating nodes every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). |
Observations and Reactions
In Accra, automatic street lights flickered on, authorities sounded whistles and schoolchildren burst into applause across Ghana's capital. Many in the deeply religious country of Christians and Muslims said the phenomenon bolstered their faith.
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"I believe it's a wonderful work of God, despite all what the scientists say," said Solomon Pomenya, a 52-year old doctor. "This tells me that God is a true engineer."
From Ghana to Libya and Syria, schools closed and streets emptied. West African governments scrambled to educate people about the dangers of looking at the eclipse without proper eye protection.
In Togo, authorities imported hundreds of thousands of pairs of special glasses that consumers cleared rapidly from shelves in the capital, Lome.
Superstitions and Safety
Superstition accompanied the eclipse's path, as it has for generations.
One Indian paper advised pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse to avoid having a blind baby or one with a cleft lip. Food cooked before the eclipse should be thrown out afterward because it will be impure and those who are holding a knife or ax during the eclipse will cut themselves, the Hindustan Times added.
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An eclipse is a thing of beauty but if proper care is not taken, it can be very costly to the eye. All is not lost however, one can still have a look at the sun during the eclipse by using a solar filter. VIEWING THE ECLIPSE WITH THE NAKED EYE WILL CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE TO THE EYE.
In Ghana people spent about $1 for "solar shades" - paper-rimmed glasses with dark plastic lenses that resemble eyewear used for 3-D movies.
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