Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureTotal
Gamma0.8163
Magnitude1.0128
Maximum eclipse
Duration50 s (0 min 50 s)
Coordinates78°06′N 73°48′E / 78.1°N 73.8°E / 78.1; 73.8
Max. width of band77 km (48 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse6:23:27
References
Saros145 (17 of 77)
Catalog # (SE5000)9344

A total solar eclipse occurred on June 29, 1927. 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. The path of totality crossed far northern Europe and Asia, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Soviet Union (today's Russia) on June 29 (Wednesday), and finally passed Amukta in Alaska on June 28 (Tuesday).

Observation in England[edit]

This was the first total eclipse visible from British mainland soil for 203 years. The Astronomer Royal set up a camp to observe the eclipse from the grounnds of Giggleswick School in North Yorkshire, which was on the line of totality.[1][2] An observer at Southport, where an estimated quarter of a million people were on the shore to watch, described the eclipse for the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, describing it as "those memorable 23 seconds ... a landmark forever in the lives of those privileged to see for the first time the Sun's Corona, whose secrets are only revealed to us for some few minutes in each century."[3]

This eclipse is referenced in the closing pages of Dorothy L. Sayers' novel Unnatural Death.[4] Frances Brody's 2017 novel Death in the Stars is set at Giggleswick School while crowds were there to view the eclipse.[5]

Virginia Woolf recorded her impression of the eclipse, including the words "We had fallen. It was extinct. There was no colour. The earth was dead."[6]

Related eclipses[edit]

Solar eclipses 1924–1928[edit]

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.[7]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1924 to 1928
Ascending node   Descending node
115 July 31, 1924

Partial
120 January 24, 1925

Total
125 July 20, 1925

Annular
130 January 14, 1926

Total
135 July 9, 1926

Annular
140 January 3, 1927

Annular
145 June 29, 1927

Total
150 December 24, 1927

Partial
155 June 17, 1928

Partial

Saros 145[edit]

This solar eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 145, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours, containing 77 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on January 4, 1639, and reached a first annular eclipse on June 6, 1891. It was a hybrid event on June 17, 1909, and total eclipses from June 29, 1927, through September 9, 2648. The series ends at member 77 as a partial eclipse on April 17, 3009. The longest eclipse will occur on June 25, 2522, with a maximum duration of totality of 7 minutes, 12 seconds. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon's ascending node.

Series members 10–32 occur between 1801 and 2359
10 11 12

April 13, 1801

April 24, 1819

May 4, 1837
13 14 15

May 16, 1855

May 26, 1873

June 6, 1891
16 17 18

June 17, 1909

June 29, 1927

July 9, 1945
19 20 21

July 20, 1963

July 31, 1981

August 11, 1999
22 23 24

August 21, 2017

September 2, 2035

September 12, 2053
25 26 27

September 23, 2071

October 4, 2089

October 16, 2107
28 29 30

October 26, 2125

November 7, 2143

November 17, 2161
31 32 33

November 28, 2179

December 9, 2197

December 21, 2215
34 35 36

December 31, 2233

January 12, 2252

January 22, 2270
37 38 39

February 2, 2288

February 14, 2306

February 25, 2324
40

March 8, 2342

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "With the Astronomer Royal". The Guardian. 30 June 1927. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Eclipse archive". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 17 August 1999. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  3. ^ Seeley, Sylvia (1927). "The total eclipse of June 29, 1927 as seen by a spectator at Southport, England". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 21: 328-332. Bibcode:1927JRASC..21..328S. Retrieved 9 January 2023 – via SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS).
  4. ^ "Unnatural Death".
  5. ^ "Death in the Stars: the ninth Kate Shackleton mystery by Frances Brody". frances-brody.com. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  6. ^ Popova, Maria (9 May 2018). "Darkness in the Celestial Lighthouse: Virginia Woolf's Arresting 1927 Account of a Total Solar Eclipse". The Marginalian. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  7. ^ 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.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]