| Solar eclipse of August 31, 1970 | |
|---|---|
 Map | |
| Type of eclipse | |
| Nature | Annular |
| Gamma | −0.5364 |
| Magnitude | 0.94 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 407 s (6 min 47 s) |
| Coordinates | 20°18′S 164°00′W / 20.3°S 164°W |
| Max. width of band | 258 km (160 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 21:55:30 |
| References | |
| Saros | 144 (14 of 70) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9443 |
An annular solar eclipse occurred on Monday, August 31 – Tuesday, September 1, 1970. 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. Annularity was visible from the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (today's Papua New Guinea), Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the part that belongs to Tuvalu now) on September 1 (Tuesday), West Samoa (name changed to Samoa later) and the whole American Samoa except Swains Island on August 31 (Monday).
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.[1]
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1968 to 1971 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 119 |  1968 March 28 Partial |
−1.03704 | 124 |  1968 September 22 Total |
0.94507 | |
| 129 |  1969 March 18 Annular |
−0.27037 | 134 |  1969 September 11 Annular |
0.22014 | |
| 139 |  1970 March 7 Total |
0.44728 | 144 | 1970 August 31 Annular |
−0.53640 | |
| 149 |  1971 February 25 Partial |
1.11876 | 154 |  1971 August 20 Partial |
−1.26591 | |
| A partial solar eclipse of July 22, 1971 occurs in the next lunar year set. | ||||||
It is a part of Saros cycle 144, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on April 11, 1736. It contains annular eclipses from July 7, 1880, through August 27, 2565. There are no total eclipses in the series. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on May 5, 2980. The longest duration of annularity will be 9 minutes, 52 seconds on December 29, 2168.
| Series members 11–21 occur between 1901 and 2100: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 11 | 12 | 13 |
 Jul 30, 1916 |
 Aug 10, 1934 |
 Aug 20, 1952 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 |
Aug 31, 1970 |
 Sep 11, 1988 |
 Sep 22, 2006 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 |
 Oct 2, 2024 |
 Oct 14, 2042 |
 Oct 24, 2060 |
| 20 | 21 | |
 Nov 4, 2078 |
 Nov 15, 2096 | |
This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
| Series members between 1901 and 2100 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 March 6, 1905 (Saros 138) |
 February 3, 1916 (Saros 139) |
 January 3, 1927 (Saros 140) | |
 December 2, 1937 (Saros 141) |
 November 1, 1948 (Saros 142) |
 October 2, 1959 (Saros 143) | |
August 31, 1970 (Saros 144) |
 July 31, 1981 (Saros 145) |
 June 30, 1992 (Saros 146) | |
 May 31, 2003 (Saros 147) |
 April 29, 2014 (Saros 148) |
 March 29, 2025 (Saros 149) | |
 February 27, 2036 (Saros 150) |
 January 26, 2047 (Saros 151) |
 December 26, 2057 (Saros 152) | |
 November 24, 2068 (Saros 153) |
 October 24, 2079 (Saros 154) |
 September 23, 2090 (Saros 155) |
|
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, progressing from north to south between April 8, 1902, and August 31, 1989: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7–8 | January 24–25 | November 12 | August 31-September 1 | June 19–20 |
| 108 | 114 | 116 | ||
 April 8, 1902 |
 August 31, 1913 |
 June 19, 1917 | ||
| 118 | 120 | 122 | 124 | 126 |
 April 8, 1921 |
 January 24, 1925 |
 November 12, 1928 |
 August 31, 1932 |
 June 19, 1936 |
| 128 | 130 | 132 | 134 | 136 |
 April 7, 1940 |
 January 25, 1944 |
 November 12, 1947 |
 September 1, 1951 |
 June 20, 1955 |
| 138 | 140 | 142 | 144 | 146 |
 April 8, 1959 |
 January 25, 1963 |
 November 12, 1966 |
August 31, 1970 |
 June 20, 1974 |
| 148 | 150 | 152 | 154 | |
 April 7, 1978 |
 January 25, 1982 |
 November 12, 1985 |
 August 31, 1989 | |
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