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 120 sec (2 m 0 s)
Coordinates 35°36′N 58°36′W / 35.6°N 58.6°W / 35.6; -58.6
Max. width of band 138 km (86 mi)
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 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.

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.[1][2]

Related eclipses

It is a part of solar Saros 120.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ ECLIPSES IN HISTORY by Ken Poshedly
  2. ↑ Where did the 1780 eclipse go? Science Frontiers #22, JUL-AUG 1982. William R. Corliss

References

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