Solar eclipse of May 10, 1994
Partial from Bismarck, North Dakota, USA
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.4077
Magnitude	0.9431
Maximum eclipse
Duration	373 s (6 min 13 s)
Coordinates	41°30′N 84°06′W / 41.5°N 84.1°W / 41.5; -84.1
Max. width of band	230 km (140 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	17:12:27
References
Saros	128 (57 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9495

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the moon's descending node of its orbit on Tuesday, May 10, 1994. It was visible over a wide swath of North America, from Baja California across the Midwest of the United States up through Ontario and Nova Scotia in Canada. Occurring only 1.6 days after apogee (Perigee on Monday, May 9, 1994, at 02:18 UTC or Sunday, May 8, 1994, at 22:18 EDT or 19:18 PDT), the moon's apparent diameter was smaller than the sun. This solar eclipse belonged to Saros series 128.

The annular eclipse of May 10, 1994

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. If the eclipse is a central one, it will be either total, annular or a combination of both, called a hybrid eclipse. In a total eclipse, the moon's size as seen from earth is large enough to block all of the disk of the sun.

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), which means there is a ring of light from the sun around the dark moon. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide.

The path of annularity crossed four states of Mexico (Baja California Sur, Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua), the United States, the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia and the southeastern tip of Quebec, Azores Islands except Santa Maria Island, and part of Morocco including the capital city Rabat. Niagara Falls was also covered by the path of annularity.

The eclipse reached its moment of "greatest eclipse" in the United States near Wauseon, Ohio, about 35 miles west of Toledo, Ohio.

The Columbus Crew were originally named the "Columbus Eclipse" in their Major League Soccer bid in honor of the event.^[1]

Images

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 1994

• An annular solar eclipse on May 10.
• A partial lunar eclipse on May 25.
• A total solar eclipse on November 3.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on November 18.

Solar eclipses 1993–1996

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.^[2]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1993 to 1996
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
118	1993 May 21 Partial	1.13720		123	1993 November 13 Partial	−1.04114
128 Partial from Bismarck, ND	1994 May 10 Annular	0.40771		133 Totality at Bolivia	1994 November 3 Total	−0.35216
138	1995 April 29 Annular	−0.33821		143 Totality at Dundlod, India	1995 October 24 Total	0.35176
148	1996 April 17 Partial	−1.05796		153	1996 October 12 Partial	1.12265

Saros 128

This eclipse is a member of the Solar Saros cycle 128, which includes 73 eclipses occurring in intervals of 18 years and 11 days. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 29, 984 AD. From May 16, 1417, through June 18, 1471, the series produced total solar eclipses, followed by hybrid solar eclipses from June 28, 1489, through July 31, 1543, and annular solar eclipses from August 11, 1561, through July 25, 2120. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on November 1, 2282. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon's descending node.

Series members 52–68 occur between 1901 and 2200
52	53	54
March 17, 1904	March 28, 1922	April 7, 1940
55	56	57
April 19, 1958	April 29, 1976	May 10, 1994
58	59	60
May 20, 2012	June 1, 2030	June 11, 2048
61	62	63
June 22, 2066	July 3, 2084	July 15, 2102
64	65	66
July 25, 2120	August 5, 2138 (Partial)	August 16, 2156 (Partial)
67	68
August 27, 2174 (Partial)	September 6, 2192 (Partial)

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.

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
July 10, 1907 (Saros 125)	June 19, 1936 (Saros 126)	May 30, 1965 (Saros 127)
May 10, 1994 (Saros 128)	April 20, 2023 (Saros 129)	March 30, 2052 (Saros 130)
March 10, 2081 (Saros 131)

Metonic cycle

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.

21 events between July 22, 1971 and July 22, 2047
July 21–22	May 9–11	February 26–27	December 14–15	October 2–3
116	118	120	122	124
July 22, 1971	May 11, 1975	February 26, 1979	December 15, 1982	October 3, 1986
126	128	130	132	134
July 22, 1990	May 10, 1994	February 26, 1998	December 14, 2001	October 3, 2005
136	138	140	142	144
July 22, 2009	May 10, 2013	February 26, 2017	December 14, 2020	October 2, 2024
146	148	150	152	154
July 22, 2028	May 9, 2032	February 27, 2036	December 15, 2039	October 3, 2043
156
July 22, 2047