Solar eclipse of February 5, 1962
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.2107
Magnitude	1.043
Maximum eclipse
Duration	248 s (4 min 8 s)
Coordinates	4°12′S 178°06′E / 4.2°S 178.1°E / -4.2; 178.1
Max. width of band	147 km (91 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	0:12:38
References
Saros	130 (49 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9424

A total solar eclipse occurred on Monday,^[1] February 5, 1962. 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 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 kilometres wide. Totality was visible from Indonesia, Netherlands New Guinea (now belonging to Indonesia), the Territory of Papua New Guinea (today's Papua New Guinea), British Solomon Islands (today's Solomon Islands), and Palmyra Atoll.

Observation

A team sent by Kyoto University of Japan observed this eclipse in Lae, the second largest city and a port on the east coast of the Territory Papua New Guinea. The spectrum was analyzed with spectrophotometry, and photometry of the inner corona was conducted.^[2]

Related eclipses

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.^[3]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1961 to 1964
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
120	1961 February 15 Total		125	1961 August 11 Annular
130	1962 February 5 Total		135	1962 July 31 Annular
140	1963 January 25 Annular		145	1963 July 20 Total
150	1964 January 14 Partial		155	1964 July 9 Partial
Partial solar eclipses of June 10, 1964 and December 4, 1964 belong in the next lunar year set.

Saros 130

This eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 130, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 73 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1096. It contains total eclipses from April 5, 1475 through July 18, 2232. There are no annular eclipses in the series. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on October 25, 2394. The longest duration of totality was 6 minutes, 41 seconds on July 11, 1619. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s descending node.^[4]

Series members 43–56 between 1853 and 2300
43	44	45
November 30, 1853	December 12, 1871	December 22, 1889
46	47	48
January 3, 1908	January 14, 1926	January 25, 1944
49	50	51
February 5, 1962	February 16, 1980	February 26, 1998
52	53	54
March 9, 2016	March 20, 2034	March 30, 2052
55	56	57
April 11, 2070	April 21, 2088	May 3, 2106
58	59	60
May 14, 2124	May 25, 2142	June 4, 2160
61	62	63
June 16, 2178	June 26, 2196	July 8, 2214
64	65	66
July 18, 2232	July 30, 2250	August 9, 2268
67
August 20, 2286

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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011.
September 11-12	June 30-July 1	April 17-19	February 4-5	November 22-23
114	116	118	120	122
September 12, 1931	June 30, 1935	April 19, 1939	February 4, 1943	November 23, 1946
124	126	128	130	132
September 12, 1950	June 30, 1954	April 19, 1958	February 5, 1962	November 23, 1965
134	136	138	140	142
September 11, 1969	June 30, 1973	April 18, 1977	February 4, 1981	November 22, 1984
144	146	148	150	152
September 11, 1988	June 30, 1992	April 17, 1996	February 5, 2000	November 23, 2003
154	156
September 11, 2007	July 1, 2011