Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970

Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970
Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.4473
Magnitude	1.0414
Maximum eclipse
Duration	208 s (3 min 28 s)
Coordinates	18°12′N 94°42′W / 18.2°N 94.7°W
Max. width of band	153 km (95 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	17:38:30
References
Saros	139 (27 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9442

The total solar eclipse of March 7, 1970 was visible across all of North America and Central America. 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 across southern Mexico and across the southeast coast of the United States and Canada. Greatest eclipse occurred over Mexico, with totality lasting 3 minutes and 28 seconds. Totality over the United States lasted up to 3 minutes and 10 seconds.^[1] There will not be an eclipse with a greater duration of totality over the contiguous United States until the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, a period of 54 years.

Scientific effects

The March 7 eclipse slowed a radio transmission of atomic time from North Carolina to Washington, D.C.^[2]

Images

Animation of eclipse path (3 minutes per frame)

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1968-1971

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]

The partial solar eclipse on July 22, 1971 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1968 to 1971
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
119	March 28, 1968 Partial	−1.037	124	September 22, 1968 Total	0.9451
129	March 18, 1969 Annular	−0.2704	134	September 11, 1969 Annular	0.2201
139 Totality in Williamston, NC USA	March 7, 1970 Total	0.4473	144	August 31, 1970 Annular	−0.5364
149	February 25, 1971 Partial	1.1188	154	August 20, 1971 Partial	−1.2659

Saros 139

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 139, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 17, 1501. It contains hybrid eclipses from August 11, 1627 through December 9, 1825 and total eclipses from December 21, 1843 through March 26, 2601. There are no annular eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 3, 2763. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 61 at 7 minutes, 29.22 seconds on July 16, 2186. This date is the longest solar eclipse computed between 4000 BC and AD 6000.^[4] All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[5]

Series members 18–39 occur between 1801 and 2200:
18	19	20
November 29, 1807	December 9, 1825	December 21, 1843
21	22	23
December 31, 1861	January 11, 1880	January 22, 1898
24	25	26
February 3, 1916	February 14, 1934	February 25, 1952
27	28	29
March 7, 1970	March 18, 1988	March 29, 2006
30	31	32
April 8, 2024	April 20, 2042	April 30, 2060
33	34	35
May 11, 2078	May 22, 2096	June 3, 2114
36	37	38
June 13, 2132	June 25, 2150	July 5, 2168
39
July 16, 2186

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 ascending node.

22 eclipse events between December 24, 1916 and July 31, 2000
December 24–25	October 12	July 31–August 1	May 19–20	March 7
111	113	115	117	119
December 24, 1916		July 31, 1924	May 19, 1928	March 7, 1932
121	123	125	127	129
December 25, 1935	October 12, 1939	August 1, 1943	May 20, 1947	March 7, 1951
131	133	135	137	139
December 25, 1954	October 12, 1958	July 31, 1962	May 20, 1966	March 7, 1970
141	143	145	147	149
December 24, 1973	October 12, 1977	July 31, 1981	May 19, 1985	March 7, 1989
151	153	155
December 24, 1992	October 12, 1996	July 31, 2000

In popular culture

Carly Simon’s December 1972 pop hit “You’re So Vain” contains the lyric “Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun,” and *may* have been a reference to this eclipse, as opposed to the one also over Nova Scotia on July 10, 1972, because Simon first began writing the lyrics in 1971. However, it remains feasible that she may have known of the latter in advance and realized that it would’ve been in the news some months previously by the time the song was actually released. For practical reasons, it’d be more feasible for the wealthy vain subject of the song to have flown a Learjet to Nova Scotia for the 1972 eclipse because the 1970 one was visible in parts of the USA and Mexico where it was longer lasting and a much more pleasant climate to watch an eclipse from than Nova Scotia would’ve been in early March, so he would’ve been much more likely to travel to one of those places. For the 1972 eclipse, on the other hand, Nova Scotia was the southernmost land mass along the totality path, so it would’ve been the best and most accessible place from which to watch it (most of the rest of the path was in the cold [even in July] lands of northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska, the northernmost tip of the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and present-day Nunavut (which hadn’t been split off from the Northwest Territories yet). Since this one was in July, Nova Scotia would’ve been considerably more pleasant climate-wise than it would’ve been in early March.

This may also have been the eclipse mentioned in episode two of the The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–77), entitled "Today I am a Ma'am", which the character Howard Arnell (played by Richard Schaal (1928 - 2014)) has photographs he took of it pre exposed and therefore ruined, whereupon he bemoans the fact that the next total eclipse over Minneapolis will not occur until the solar eclipse of September 14, 2099, although a partial would happen in 1979.