During the 20th century, there were 228

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 Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

s of which 78 were

partial Partial may refer to: Mathematics *Partial derivative, derivative with respect to one of several variables of a function, with the other variables held constant ** ∂, a symbol that can denote a partial derivative, sometimes pronounced "partial d ...

, 73 were annular, 71 were total and 6 were hybrids between total and annular eclipses. Of these, two annular and three total eclipses were non-central, in the sense that the very center (axis) of the Moon's shadow will miss the Earth (for more information see

gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

). In the 20th century, the greatest number of eclipses in one year is five, in 1935, though the years 1917, 1946, 1964, 1982 and 2000 had four eclipses each. One month, July 2000, featured two solar eclipses, on

July 1 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. * 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and ...

and

July 31 Events Pre-1600 *30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide. * 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Tr ...

. The predictions given here are by

Fred Espenak Fred Espenak (August 1, 1953 – June 1, 2025) was an American astrophysicist. He worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center and published extensively on eclipse predictions. Career Espenak became interested in astronomy when he was 7–8 year ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

. The longest measured duration in which the Moon completely covered the Sun, known as totality, was during the

solar eclipse of June 20, 1955 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Monday, June 20, 1955, with a magnitude of 1.0776. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of ...

. This total solar eclipse had a maximum duration of 7 minutes and 7.74 seconds. The longest possible duration of a total solar eclipse is 7 minutes and 32 seconds. The longest annular solar eclipse of the 20th century took place on December 14, 1955, with a duration of 12 minutes and 9.17 seconds. The maximum possible duration is 12 minutes and 29 seconds. Two instances of back-to-back hybrid solar eclipses within a period of less than six months occurred in the 20th century. The eclipse of June 17, 1909, was the second hybrid eclipse in the span of less than one year, the first one being on December 23, 1908, and the eclipse of March 29, 1987, was the second hybrid eclipse in the span of less than one year, the first one being on October 3, 1986. The table contains the date and time of the greatest eclipse (in dynamical time), which in this case is the time when the axis of the Moon's shadow cone passes closest to the centre of Earth; this is in (Ephemeris Time). The number of the

saros series The saros () is a period of exactly 223 synodic months, 18 years 11 days and 8 hours, that can be used to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. One saros period after an eclipse, the Sun, Earth, and Moon return to approximately the same relative g ...

that the eclipse belongs to is given, followed by the type of the eclipse (either total, annular, partial or hybrid), the gamma of the eclipse (how centrally the shadow of the Moon strikes the Earth), and the magnitude of the eclipse (the fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon). For total and annular eclipses, the duration of the eclipse is given, as well as the location of the greatest eclipse (the point of maximum eclipse) and the path width of the total or annular eclipse. The geographical areas from which the eclipse can be seen are listed along with a chart illustrating each eclipse's respective path.

Notable eclipses of the 20th century

* May 29, 1919: this total eclipse was photographed by

Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lu ...

to verify

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

(see

Eddington experiment The Eddington experiment was an observational test of general relativity, organised by the British astronomers Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1919. The observations were of the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 and were ca ...

) * June 20, 1955: longest total eclipse between 1901 and 2000, lasting a maximum of 7 minutes and 8 seconds * June 30, 1973: a

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

jet flew along the path, thereby extending the length of totality to 74 min. * March 29, 1987: second hybrid eclipse in less than one year, the first being on October 3, 1986. * July 11, 1991: solar eclipse with the shortest gamma, of only −0.00412. * July 31, 2000: the second solar eclipse within one calendar month, the first being on July 1, 2000.

Eclipses

References

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solar eclipses * 20th century-related lists

Notable eclipses of the 20th century

Eclipses

See also

References

Bibliography