A partial solar eclipse occurred on September 20–21, 1960. A solar eclipse 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. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth. It began in northeast

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

near sunrise on September 21, and ended near sunset over North America on September 20, one day earlier because of the effects of the International Date Line.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1957–1960

References

*Eclipse of the Sun of September 20, 1960—Sky and Telescope magazine, volume 20, page 129.

External links

*http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot1951/SE1960Sep20P.GIF *http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEdata.php?Ecl=19600920 1960 9 20 1960 in science 1960 9 20 September 1960 events {{Solar-eclipse-stub