Solar eclipse of October 27, 1780

Solar eclipse of October 27, 1780
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.8083
Magnitude	1.0244
Maximum eclipse
Duration	2m 0s
Coordinates	35.6N 58.6W
Max. width of band	138 km
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	17:18:27
References
Saros	120 (48 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	8991

A total solar eclipse occurred on October 27, 1780. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between 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, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across the surface of the Earth, while a partial solar eclipse will be visible over a region thousands of kilometres wide.

Observations

During the American revolutionary war, the first American solar eclipse expedition was organized and sent out from Harvard College in Massachusetts. A special immunity agreement was negotiated with the British to allow the scientists to work unharmed. The Harvard expedition, after all their efforts, missed the eclipse because they chose a site outside the path of totality. Modern analysis of this embarrassing incident for embryonic American science blame Samuel Williams for miscalculating the path of totality.

Related eclipses

It is a part of solar Saros 114.

See also

• List of solar eclipses visible from the United Kingdom 1000–2090 AD

References

• NASA chart graphics
• Googlemap
• NASA Besselian elements
• Observations of a Solar Eclipse, October 27, 1780, Made at St. John's Island, by Mess'rs. Clarke and Wright, by Joseph Peters 1783 American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
• A Memoir, Containing Observations of a Solar Eclipse of October 27, 1780 by Joseph Willard, 1783
• Where Did the 1780 Eclipse Go? Rothschild, Robert F., Sky and Telescope, 63:558, 1982