Solar eclipse of August 22, 1979

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, August 22, 1979,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.9329. 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. 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). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 15 hours before apogee (on August 23, 1979, at 8:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.^[2]

Solar eclipse of August 22, 1979

Annular eclipse
Map
Gamma	−0.9632
Magnitude	0.9329
Maximum eclipse
Duration	363 s (6 min 3 s)
Coordinates	59.6°S 108.5°W / -59.6; -108.5
Max. width of band	953 km (592 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	17:22:38
References
Saros	125 (52 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9463
← February 26, 1979 February 16, 1980 →

Annularity was visible for a part of Antarctica. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of southern South America and Antarctica. This was the last of 40 umbral eclipses in Solar Saros 125.

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.^[3]

August 22, 1979 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1979 August 22 at 14:55:55.6 UTC
First Umbral External Contact	1979 August 22 at 16:43:17.2 UTC
First Central Line	1979 August 22 at 16:51:47.8 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact	1979 August 22 at 17:03:32.7 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1979 August 22 at 17:11:15.7 UTC
Greatest Duration	1979 August 22 at 17:22:05.7 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1979 August 22 at 17:22:38.0 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1979 August 22 at 17:52:40.4 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact	1979 August 22 at 17:41:20.6 UTC
Last Central Line	1979 August 22 at 17:53:06.4 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact	1979 August 22 at 18:01:37.8 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1979 August 22 at 19:49:07.3 UTC

August 22, 1979 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.93295
Eclipse Obscuration	0.87039
Gamma	−0.96319
Sun Right Ascension	10h04m36.4s
Sun Declination	+11°48'55.0"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'48.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	10h03m42.7s
Moon Declination	+10°58'46.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter	14'42.1"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°53'57.5"
ΔT	50.2 s

Eclipse season

See also: Eclipse cycle

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

Eclipse season of August–September 1979

August 22 Ascending node (new moon)	September 6 Descending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 125	Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 137

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1979

• A total solar eclipse on February 26.
• A partial lunar eclipse on March 13.
• An annular solar eclipse on August 22.
• A total lunar eclipse on September 6.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 3, 1975
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 11, 1983

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 10, 1972
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 3, 1986

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 17, 1970
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of August 27, 1988

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 22, 1968
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 22, 1990

Solar Saros 125

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 11, 1961
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 2, 1997

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 12, 1950
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 1, 2008

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 20, 1892
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 22, 2066

Solar eclipses of 1979–1982

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.^[4]

The partial solar eclipses on June 21, 1982 and December 15, 1982 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1979 to 1982
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
120 Totality in Brandon, MB, Canada	February 26, 1979 Total	0.8981		125	August 22, 1979 Annular	−0.9632
130	February 16, 1980 Total	0.2224		135	August 10, 1980 Annular	−0.1915
140	February 4, 1981 Annular	−0.4838		145	July 31, 1981 Total	0.5792
150	January 25, 1982 Partial	−1.2311		155	July 20, 1982 Partial	1.2886

Saros 125

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 125, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on February 4, 1060. It contains total eclipses from June 13, 1276 through July 16, 1330; hybrid eclipses on July 26, 1348 and August 7, 1366; and annular eclipses from August 17, 1384 through August 22, 1979. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on April 9, 2358. 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 was produced by member 14 at 1 minutes, 11 seconds on June 25, 1294, and the longest duration of annularity was produced by member 48 at 7 minutes, 23 seconds on July 10, 1907. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[5]

Series members 43–64 occur between 1801 and 2200:
43	44	45
May 16, 1817	May 27, 1835	June 6, 1853
46	47	48
June 18, 1871	June 28, 1889	July 10, 1907
49	50	51
July 20, 1925	August 1, 1943	August 11, 1961
52	53	54
August 22, 1979	September 2, 1997	September 13, 2015
55	56	57
September 23, 2033	October 4, 2051	October 15, 2069
58	59	60
October 26, 2087	November 6, 2105	November 18, 2123
61	62	63
November 28, 2141	December 9, 2159	December 20, 2177
64
December 31, 2195

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.

20 eclipse events between June 10, 1964 and August 21, 2036
June 10–11	March 28–29	January 14–16	November 3	August 21–22
117	119	121	123	125
June 10, 1964	March 28, 1968	January 16, 1972	November 3, 1975	August 22, 1979
127	129	131	133	135
June 11, 1983	March 29, 1987	January 15, 1991	November 3, 1994	August 22, 1998
137	139	141	143	145
June 10, 2002	March 29, 2006	January 15, 2010	November 3, 2013	August 21, 2017
147	149	151	153	155
June 10, 2021	March 29, 2025	January 14, 2029	November 3, 2032	August 21, 2036

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
January 1, 1805 (Saros 109)		October 31, 1826 (Saros 111)		August 28, 1848 (Saros 113)
July 29, 1859 (Saros 114)	June 28, 1870 (Saros 115)	May 27, 1881 (Saros 116)	April 26, 1892 (Saros 117)	March 29, 1903 (Saros 118)
February 25, 1914 (Saros 119)	January 24, 1925 (Saros 120)	December 25, 1935 (Saros 121)	November 23, 1946 (Saros 122)	October 23, 1957 (Saros 123)
September 22, 1968 (Saros 124)	August 22, 1979 (Saros 125)	July 22, 1990 (Saros 126)	June 21, 2001 (Saros 127)	May 20, 2012 (Saros 128)
April 20, 2023 (Saros 129)	March 20, 2034 (Saros 130)	February 16, 2045 (Saros 131)	January 16, 2056 (Saros 132)	December 17, 2066 (Saros 133)
November 15, 2077 (Saros 134)	October 14, 2088 (Saros 135)	September 14, 2099 (Saros 136)	August 15, 2110 (Saros 137)	July 14, 2121 (Saros 138)
June 13, 2132 (Saros 139)	May 14, 2143 (Saros 140)	April 12, 2154 (Saros 141)	March 12, 2165 (Saros 142)	February 10, 2176 (Saros 143)
January 9, 2187 (Saros 144)	December 9, 2197 (Saros 145)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
December 21, 1805 (Saros 119)	November 30, 1834 (Saros 120)	November 11, 1863 (Saros 121)
October 20, 1892 (Saros 122)	October 1, 1921 (Saros 123)	September 12, 1950 (Saros 124)
August 22, 1979 (Saros 125)	August 1, 2008 (Saros 126)	July 13, 2037 (Saros 127)
June 22, 2066 (Saros 128)	June 2, 2095 (Saros 129)	May 14, 2124 (Saros 130)
April 23, 2153 (Saros 131)	April 3, 2182 (Saros 132)