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

occurred at the Moon's

ascending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Wednesday, October 23, 1957, with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 1.0013. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, 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. Occurring about 1.4 days after

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

(on October 21, 1957, at 13:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. It was unusual that while it is a total solar eclipse, it is not a central one. A ''non-central'' eclipse is one where the center-line of totality does not intersect the surface of the Earth (when the

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 ...

is between 0.9972 and 1.0260). Instead, the center line passes just above the Earth's surface. This rare type occurs when totality is only visible at sunset or sunrise in a polar region. While totality was not visible for any land masses, a partial eclipse was visible for

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. This was the last of 44 umbral solar eclipses in Solar Saros 123.

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an

eclipse season An eclipse season is a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Orbit of the Moon, Moon's orbital plane (orbital inclination, tilted five degrees to the ecliptic, Earth ...

, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1957

* An annular solar eclipse on April 30. * A total lunar eclipse on May 13. * A total solar eclipse on October 23. * A total lunar eclipse on November 7.

Metonic

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 5, 1954 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 11, 1961

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of September 12, 1950 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, descending node of orbit between Monday, September 11, 1950 and Tuesday, September 12, 1950, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 1.0182. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes bet ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 4, 1964

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 18, 1948 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 29, 1966

Tritos

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 23, 1946 * Followed by:

Solar eclipse of September 22, 1968 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, September 22, 1968, with a magnitude of 1.0099. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image o ...

Solar Saros 123

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 12, 1939 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 3, 1975

Inex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of November 12, 1928 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Monday, November 12, 1928, with a magnitude of 0.8078. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of October 3, 1986 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, descending node of orbit on Friday, October 3, 1986, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 1. It was a hybrid event, with only a fraction of its path as total, and longer sections at th ...

Triad

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of December 22, 1870 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, descending node of orbit on Thursday, December 22, 1870, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 1.0248. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby tota ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of August 23, 2044 A total solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Monday, August 22 and Tuesday, August 23, 2044, with a magnitude of 1.0364. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or p ...

Solar eclipses of 1957–1960

Saros 123

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

Notes

References

{{Solar eclipses 1957 10 23 1957 in science 1957 10 23 October 1957