Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918
Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 | |
---|---|
UTC) | |
Greatest eclipse | 22:07:43 |
References | |
Saros | 126 (42 of 72) |
Catalog # (SE5000) | 9324 |
A total solar eclipse occurred on Saturday, June 8, 1918. The eclipse was viewable across the entire contiguous United States, an event which would not occur again until the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
The path
The path of totality started south of
Besides the path where a total solar eclipse was visible, a partial solar eclipse was visible in the eastern part of
U.S. Observation team
The path of the eclipse clipped
Observation
As the total eclipse approached, the team watched as clouds obscured the Sun. The clouds did clear, but during their most important observations the Sun was covered by a thin cloud; the Sun was completely visible five minutes later.[2] This was not unusual, as cloudy conditions were reported across the country, where the eclipse was also observed from the Yerkes Observatory, Lick Observatory, and Mount Wilson Observatory.[5]
Following the 1915 prediction of Albert Einstein's General theory of relativity that light would be deflected when passing near a massive object such as the Sun, the USNO expedition attempted to validate Einstein's prediction by measuring the position of stars near the Sun. The cloud cover during totality obscured observations of stars,[6] though, preventing this test of the validity of general relativity from being completed until the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919.
Related eclipses
There were two other eclipses that year. The first was a partial lunar eclipse, during which the shadow of the Earth can be seen on the Moon, and another solar eclipse that took place on December 3 over South America.[1] The other solar eclipse, however, was an annular eclipse, which occurs when the Moon has a smaller apparent diameter and therefore never fully obscures the Sun.
Solar eclipses of 1916–1920
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.[7]
Solar eclipse series sets from 1916 to 1920 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Ascending node | Descending node | |||
111 | Partial |
116 | June 19, 1917 Partial | |
121 | December 14, 1917 Annular |
126 | June 8, 1918 Total | |
131 | December 3, 1918 Annular |
136 | May 29, 1919 Total | |
141 | November 22, 1919 Annular |
146 | May 18, 1920 Partial | |
151 | November 10, 1920 Partial |
Saros 126
It is a part of Saros cycle 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 72 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on March 10, 1179. It contains annular eclipses from June 4, 1323 through April 4, 1810, hybrid eclipses from April 14, 1828 through May 6, 1864 and total eclipses from May 17, 1882 through August 23, 2044. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on May 3, 2459. The longest duration of central eclipse (annular or total) was 6 minutes, 30 seconds of annularity on June 26, 1359. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 36 seconds on July 10, 1972. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s descending node.
Series members 42–52 occur between 1901 and 2100 | ||
---|---|---|
42 | 43 | 44 |
June 8, 1918 |
June 19, 1936 |
June 30, 1954 |
45 | 46 | 47 |
July 10, 1972 |
July 22, 1990 |
August 1, 2008 |
48 | 49 | 50 |
August 12, 2026 |
August 23, 2044 |
September 3, 2062 |
51 | 52 | |
September 13, 2080 |
September 25, 2098 |
Notes
- ^ Bibcode:1918JRASC..12..160M.
- ^ Bibcode:1919PA.....27....1H.
- ^ a b Lawrence, Jenny; Richard Milner (February 2000). "A Forgotten Cosmic Designer". Natural History. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
- Bibcode:1918PA.....26..665S.
- doi:10.1038/102089a0.
- ^ Siegel, Ethan (2007). "America's Previous Coast-To-Coast Eclipse Almost Proved Einstein Right", Forbes, August 4, 2017, retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ^ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
Other links
- NASA graphic
- Eclipse of June 8, 1918. Contact print from the original glass plate negative. Lick Observatory Plate Archive, Mt. Hamilton.
- Foto and sketch of Solar Corona June 8, 1918