A total

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 Saturday, June 8, 1918. The eclipse was viewable across the entire

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

, an event which would not occur again until the solar eclipse of August, 2017.

The path

Solar eclipse_of_1918_June 8_animated globe

The path of totality started south of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, went across the Pacific Ocean, passing northern part of

Kitadaitō, Okinawa is a village consisting of the islands of Kitadaitōjima and Okidaitōjima of Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of October 2016, the village has an estimated population of 615 and a density of 47 persons per km2. The total area ...

and the whole Tori-shima in

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...

on June 9 (Sunday), and then acrossed the

and British Bahamas (today's

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

) on June 8 (Saturday). The largest city to see totality was

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, although many could theoretically see it as the size of the shadow was between across as it traveled across America. The longest duration of totality was in the Pacific at a point south of Alaska. The path of the eclipse finished near

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. Besides the path where a total solar eclipse was visible, a partial solar eclipse was visible in the eastern part of

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

, northern part of

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...

, eastern part of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

Hawaii Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii ...

, northeastern

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, the entire

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

except the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

, and the northwestern tip of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

U.S. Observation team

The path of the eclipse clipped

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, and then moved across the whole of Oregon through the rest of the country, exiting over

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The

U.S. Naval Observatory United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...

(USNO) obtained a special grant of $3,500 from Congress for a team to observe the eclipse in

Baker City Baker City is a city in and the county seat of Baker County, Oregon, United States. It was named after Edward D. Baker, the only U.S. Senator ever killed in military combat. The population was 10,099 at the time of the 2020 census. History Pla ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The team had been making preparations since the year before, and John C. Hammond led the first members to Baker City on April 11th. The location was important, as it influenced the probability of cloud cover and the duration and angle of the sun during the eclipse. The team included

Samuel Alfred Mitchell Samuel Alfred Mitchell (April 29, 1874 – February 22, 1960) was a Canadian-American astronomer who studied solar eclipses and set up a program to use photographic techniques to determine the distance to stars at McCormick Observatory, where ...

as its expert on eclipses, and

Howard Russell Butler Howard Russell Butler (March 3, 1856 – May 20, 1934) was an American painter and founder of the American Fine Arts Society. Butler persuaded Andrew Carnegie to fund the construction of Carnegie Lake near Princeton University, supervised the con ...

, an artist and physicist. In a time before reliable colour photography, Butler's role was to paint the eclipse at totality after observing it for 112.1 seconds. He noted later that he used a system of taking notes of the colours using skills he had learned for transient effects.

Joel Stebbins Joel Stebbins (July 30, 1878 – March 16, 1966) was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He was director of the University of Illinois Observatory from 1903 to 1922 where he performed innovative work with th ...

and

Jakob Kunz Jakob Kunz (November 3, 1874 – July 18, 1938) was an American physicist who pioneered the development and application of photoelectric cells. Born in Brittnau, Switzerland, he earned his bachelor's degree in 1897 and his Ph.D in 1902 from the ...

from the

University of Illinois Observatory The University of Illinois Astronomical Observatory, located at 901 S. Mathews Avenue in Urbana, Illinois, on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was built in 1896, and was designed by Charles A. Gunn. It has been listed o ...

made the first photoelectric photometric observations of the solar corona from their observing site near Rock Springs, Wyoming

Observation

As the total eclipse approached, the team watched as clouds obscured the sun. The clouds did clear, but during their most important observations the sun was covered by a thin cloud; the sun was completely visible five minutes later. This was not unusual, as cloudy conditions were reported across the country, where the eclipse was also observed from the

Yerkes Observatory Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. Owne ...

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by th ...

, and

Mount Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observat ...

. Following the 1915 prediction of

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

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

that light would be deflected when passing near a massive object such as the sun, the USNO expedition attempted to validate Einstein's prediction by measuring the position of stars near the sun. The cloud cover during totality obscured observations of stars,Siegel, Ethan (2007)
"America's Previous Coast-To-Coast Eclipse Almost Proved Einstein Right"
''Forbes'', August 4, 2017, retrieved 24 April 2022. though, preventing this test of the validity of general relativity from being completed until the

solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 A total solar eclipse occurred on Thursday, May 29, 1919. With the duration of totality at maximum eclipse of 6 minutes 50.75 seconds, it was the longest solar eclipse since May 27, 1416. A longer total solar eclipse would later occur on June 8 ...

Related eclipses

There were two other eclipses that year. The first was a partial

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...

, during which the shadow of the earth can be seen on the moon, and another solar eclipse that took place on December 3 over South America. The other solar eclipse, however, was an annular eclipse, which occurs when the moon has a smaller apparent diameter and therefore never fully obscures the sun.

The path

U.S. Observation team

Observation

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1916–1920

Saros 126

Notes

Other links