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

descending 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 Friday, October 3, 1986, 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. It was a hybrid event, with only a fraction of its path as total, and longer sections at the start and end as an annular eclipse. A solar eclipse 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 The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular separation (in units of angle) describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the '' visual ...

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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 8.3 days after

apogee 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 September 25, 1986, at 11:00 UTC) and 3.7 days before

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 7, 1986, at 10:50 UTC). Totality occurred for a very short time (calculated at 0.08 seconds) in an area in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, just east of the southern tip of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. The path, on the surface of the Earth, was a narrow, tapered, horse-shoe, and visible only from a thin strip between

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and Greenland. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, and

. This eclipse was the last central eclipse of Solar Saros 124 and the only hybrid eclipse of that cycle.

Observations

The only witnesses of a few seconds of brief totality were the "Gang of Nine" eclipse chasers aboard a plane at an altitude of 40,000 feet. The eclipse also resulted in litigation involving a Florida fourth grader whose eyes were allegedly damaged when he viewed the partial eclipse on school grounds. A lower court had dismissed the case on the grounds that the school had no duty to supervise the child after school hours. But the Florida Court of Appeals ruled in 1994 that the jury instruction on that question was improper, and remanded the case.

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 1986

* A partial solar eclipse on April 9. * A total lunar eclipse on April 24. * A hybrid solar eclipse on October 3. * A total lunar eclipse on October 17.

Metonic

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 15, 1982 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 22, 1990

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 22, 1979 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 13, 1993

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of September 27, 1977 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 8, 1995

Tritos

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

Solar eclipse of September 2, 1997 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Monday, September 1 and Tuesday, September 2, 1997, with a magnitude of 0.8988. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally o ...

Solar Saros 124

* Preceded 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 ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of October 14, 2004 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Wednesday, October 13 and Thursday, October 14, 2004, with a magnitude of 0.9282. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby tot ...

Inex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of October 23, 1957 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, October 23, 1957, with a magnitude of 1.0013. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image o ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of September 13, 2015 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, ascending node of orbit on Sunday, September 13, 2015, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 0.7875. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby tota ...

Triad

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 3, 1899 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 3, 2073

Solar eclipses of 1986–1989

Saros 124

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

References

External links

03 October 1986: A Geometrically Remarkable Eclipse
{{Solar eclipses 1986 in science 1986 10 3 October 1986 1986 10 3