An annular

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

occurred on August 11, 1961. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, 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 The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular distance describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it is ...

is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an

annulus Annulus (or anulus) or annular indicates a ring- or donut-shaped area or structure. It may refer to: Human anatomy * ''Anulus fibrosus disci intervertebralis'', spinal structure * Annulus of Zinn, a.k.a. annular tendon or ''anulus tendineus com ...

(ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. A small annular eclipse covered only 94% of the Sun in a very broad path, 499 km wide at maximum, and lasted 6 minutes and 35 seconds.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1961–1964

Saros 125

Inex series

In the 19th century: * Solar Saros 120: Total Solar Eclipse of 1816 Nov 19 * Solar Saros 121: Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 1845 Oct 30 * Solar Saros 122: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1874 Oct 10 In the 22nd century: * Solar Saros 130: Total Solar Eclipse of 2106 May 03 * Solar Saros 131: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2135 Apr 13 * Solar Saros 132: Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2164 Mar 23 * Solar Saros 133: Total Solar Eclipse of 2193 Mar 03

Metonic series

Notes

References

1961 8 11 1961 in science 1961 08 11 August 1961 events {{Solar-eclipse-stub