Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918
Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 | |
---|---|
Type of eclipse | |
Nature | Total |
Gamma | 0.4658 |
Magnitude | 1.0292 |
Maximum eclipse | |
Duration | 143 s (2 min 23 s) |
Coordinates | 50°54′N 152°00′W / 50.9°N 152°W |
Max. width of band | 112 km (70 mi) |
Times (UTC) | |
Greatest eclipse | 22:07:43 |
References | |
Saros | 126 (42 of 72) |
Catalog # (SE5000) | 9324 |
A total solar eclipse occurred on June 8, 1918. The eclipse was observed by a U.S. Naval Observatory team at Baker City in Oregon. The painting below shows totality when the moon prevented the sun's rays from hitting that part of Oregon. The track of the eclipse went across the United States.
The path
The path of the eclipse started south of Japan, went across the Pacific Ocean, and then across the United States. The largest city to see totality was Denver although many could theoretically see it as the size of the shadow was between 70 and 44 miles (113 and 71 km) across as it travelled across America. The longest duration of totality was in the Pacific at a point south of Alaska. The path of the eclipse finished near Bermuda.[1]
U.S. Observation team
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/PostcardBakerORBirdsEyeView1918.jpg/220px-PostcardBakerORBirdsEyeView1918.jpg)
The path clipped Washington State and then moved across the whole of Oregon and then the rest of the country exiting over Florida. The U.S. Naval Observatory obtained a special grant of $3,500 from Congress for a team to observe the eclipse in Baker City in Oregon. The team had been making preparations since the year before and John C. Hammond led the first members to Baker City on April 11th.[2] The location was important as it influenced the probability of cloud cover and the duration and angle of the sun during the eclipse. The team included Samuel Alfred Mitchell as its expert on eclipses, and Howard Russell Butler, an artist and physicist. In a time before reliable colour photography, Butler's role was to paint the eclipse at totality after observing it for 112.1 seconds.[3] He noted later that he used a system of taking notes of the colours using skills he had learnt for transient effects.[3]
Joel Stebbins and Jakob Kunz from the University of Illinois Observatory made the first photoelectric photometric observations of the solar corona from their observing site near Rock Springs, Wyoming [4]
Observation
As the time came for totality 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]
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.[6]
The solar eclipses on February 3, 1916 (total), July 30, 1916 (annular), January 23, 1917 (partial), and July 19, 1917 (partial) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.
Solar eclipse series sets from 1916 to 1920 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
111 | December 24, 1916![]() Partial |
−1.5321 | 116 | June 19, 1917![]() Partial |
1.2857 | |
121 | December 14, 1917![]() Annular |
−0.9157 | 126 | June 8, 1918![]() Total |
0.4658 | |
131 | December 3, 1918![]() Annular |
−0.2387 | 136![]() Totality in Príncipe |
May 29, 1919![]() Total |
−0.2955 | |
141 | November 22, 1919![]() Annular |
0.4549 | 146 | May 18, 1920![]() Partial |
−1.0239 | |
151 | November 10, 1920![]() Partial |
1.1287 |
Notes
- ^ a b Motherwell, R.M. (1918). "The Total Solar Eclipse, June 8, 1918". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 12: 160–168A. Bibcode:1918JRASC..12..160M.
- ^ a b Hammond, J.C. (1919). "The Naval Observatory eclipse expedition, June 8, 1918". Popular Astronomy. 27 (1): 1. Bibcode:1919PA.....27....1H.
- ^ a b Lawrence, Jenny; Richard Milner (February 2000). "A Forgotten Cosmic Designer". Natural History. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
- ^ Stebbins, Joel (1918). "The Illinois eclipse expedition to Rock Springs Wyoming". Popular Astronomy. 26. Bibcode:1918PA.....26..665S.
- ^ "Total Solar Eclipse of June 8, 1918". Nature. 102 (2553): 89–90. 3 October 1918. Bibcode:1918Natur.102...89.. doi:10.1038/102089a0.
- ^ 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
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