Solar eclipse of July 22, 1990

Solar eclipse of July 22, 1990
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.7597
Magnitude	1.0391
Maximum eclipse
Duration	153 sec (2 m 33 s)
Coordinates
Max. width of band	201 km (125 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	3:03:07
References
Saros	126 (46 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9487

A total solar eclipse occurred on July 22, 1990. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, 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.

In Finland the solar eclipse occurred during sunrise and enabled observation and photography without protective glasses, which was however hampered by strong clouds. The Sun was totally eclipsed in Helsinki.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 1990-1992

Each member in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1990–1992

Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
121	January 26, 1990 Annular		126	July 22, 1990 Total
131	January 15, 1991 Annular		136	July 11, 1991 Total
141	January 4, 1992 Annular		146	June 30, 1992 Total
151	December 24, 1992 Partial

Saros 126

It is a part of Saros cycle 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on March 10, 1179. It contains annular eclipses from June 4, 1323 through April 4, 1810 and hybrid eclipses from April 14, 1828 through May 6, 1864. It contains total eclipses from May 17, 1882 through August 23, 2044. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on May 3, 2459. The longest duration of central eclipse (annular or total) was 5 minutes, 46 seconds of annularity on November 22, 1593. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 36 seconds on July 10, 1972.

Series members 39-49 occur between 1901 and 2100:

39	40	41
June 8, 1918	June 19, 1936	June 30, 1954
42	43	44
July 10, 1972	July 22, 1990	August 1, 2008
45	46	47
August 12, 2026	150px August 23, 2044	September 3, 2062
48	49
September 13, 2080	September 25, 2098

Metonic cycle

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days).

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements

Photos:

• Prof. Druckmüller's eclipse photography site
• Druckmüller in Chukotka, Soviet Union
• in Russia
• in Russia (2)
• Russian scientist had no successful observation of the eclipse