Solar eclipse of June 30, 1954

Solar eclipse of June 30, 1954
Solar eclipse of June 30, 1954
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.6135
Magnitude	1.0357
Maximum eclipse
Duration	155 s (2 min 35 s)
Coordinates	60°30′N 4°12′E / 60.5°N 4.2°E
Max. width of band	153 km (95 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	12:32:38
References
Saros	126 (44 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9408

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of the orbit on Wednesday, June 30, 1954. 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. Occurring only 3.1 days after perigee (on June 27, 1954), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. Totality lasted 2 minutes and 34.93 seconds, but at sunrise 1 minute and 8.6 seconds and at sunset 1 minute and 5.3 seconds. The moon's apparent diameter was larger, 1930.2 arc-seconds.

Visibility

Totality began at sunrise over the United States over Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and crossed into Canada, across southern Greenland, Iceland and Faroe Islands, then into Europe, across Norway, Sweden, and eastern Europe.^[1] It ended before sunset over Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and ending in northwestern India. The southwestern part of Vilnius, northeastern part of Kyiv, and southwestern part of Baku were covered by the path of totality.

The northeastern part of Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, also lay in the path of totality.

The eclipse was mostly seen on June 30, 1954, except for northeastern Soviet Union, where a partial eclipse started on June 30, passing midnight and ended on July 1 due to the midnight sun.

Observation

Within the United Kingdom, the path of totality only covered Shetland Islands in northern Scotland. However, the area was mostly clouded out during the eclipse, and there was even light rain in some places, so observation was not successful. About 400 scientists from around the world traveled to Sweden to observe the total eclipse.^[2] The Astronomy Department of Kiev State University, Soviet Union made observation in Kyiv and took ideal images of solar corona. The Sternberg Astronomical Institute made observation in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai.^[3]

In Wakefield, Massachusetts, U.S., the eclipse was blocked by heavy cloud cover from 6 to 8 a.m. local time, The Wakefield Daily Item reported.^[4]

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1953–1956

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse 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.^[5]

The partial solar eclipses on February 14, 1953 and August 9, 1953 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1953 to 1956
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
116	July 11, 1953 Partial	1.4388	121	January 5, 1954 Annular	−0.9296
126	June 30, 1954 Total	0.6135	131	December 25, 1954 Annular	−0.2576
136	June 20, 1955 Total	−0.1528	141	December 14, 1955 Annular	0.4266
146	June 8, 1956 Total	−0.8934	151	December 2, 1956 Partial	1.0923

Saros 126

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on March 10, 1179. It contains annular eclipses from June 4, 1323 through April 4, 1810; hybrid eclipses from April 14, 1828 through May 6, 1864; and total eclipses from May 17, 1882 through August 23, 2044. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on May 3, 2459. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of annularity was produced by member 11 at 6 minutes, 30 seconds on June 26, 1359, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 45 at 2 minutes, 36 seconds on July 10, 1972. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[6]

Series members 36–57 occur between 1801 and 2200:
36	37	38
April 4, 1810	April 14, 1828	April 25, 1846
39	40	41
May 6, 1864	May 17, 1882	May 28, 1900
42	43	44
June 8, 1918	June 19, 1936	June 30, 1954
45	46	47
July 10, 1972	July 22, 1990	August 1, 2008
48	49	50
August 12, 2026	August 23, 2044	September 3, 2062
51	52	53
September 13, 2080	September 25, 2098	October 6, 2116
54	55	56
October 17, 2134	October 28, 2152	November 8, 2170
57
November 18, 2188

Metonic series

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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011.
September 11-12	June 30-July 1	April 17-19	February 4-5	November 22-23
114	116	118	120	122
September 12, 1931	June 30, 1935	April 19, 1939	February 4, 1943	November 23, 1946
124	126	128	130	132
September 12, 1950	June 30, 1954	April 19, 1958	February 5, 1962	November 23, 1965
134	136	138	140	142
September 11, 1969	June 30, 1973	April 18, 1977	February 4, 1981	November 22, 1984
144	146	148	150	152
September 11, 1988	June 30, 1992	April 17, 1996	February 5, 2000	November 23, 2003
154	156
September 11, 2007	July 1, 2011

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
July 20, 1925 (Saros 125)	June 30, 1954 (Saros 126)	June 11, 1983 (Saros 127)
May 20, 2012 (Saros 128)	April 30, 2041 (Saros 129)	April 11, 2070 (Saros 130)
March 21, 2099 (Saros 131)

Notes

^ Geneslay E., Meeus J., Schock P., Hujer, K. : « L’éclipse totale de Soleil du 30 juin 1954 », l'Astronomie, vol. 68, p. 422
^ "1954: Three continents see eclipse of sun". On This Day. BBC News. 30 June 1954. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020.
^ "КОРОНА ЭПОХИ МИНИМУМА СОЛНЕЧНОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ" (in Russian). IZMIRAN. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016.
^ Henshaw, Kristen (June 27, 2024). "Looking Backward: June 30, 1954". The Wakefield Daily Item. "Those who were looking forward to viewing the eclipse of the sun this morning were mightily disappointed. Between 6 and 8 am, the eclipse was hidden by stubborn heavy clouds that refused to move on."
^ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
^ "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 126". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

[1] Geneslay E., Meeus J., Schock P., Hujer, K. : « L’éclipse totale de Soleil du 30 juin 1954 », l'Astronomie, vol. 68, p. 422

[2] "1954: Three continents see eclipse of sun". On This Day. BBC News. 30 June 1954. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020.

[3] "КОРОНА ЭПОХИ МИНИМУМА СОЛНЕЧНОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ" (in Russian). IZMIRAN. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016.

[4] Henshaw, Kristen (June 27, 2024). "Looking Backward: June 30, 1954". The Wakefield Daily Item. "Those who were looking forward to viewing the eclipse of the sun this morning were mightily disappointed. Between 6 and 8 am, the eclipse was hidden by stubborn heavy clouds that refused to move on."

[5] van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.

[6] "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 126". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

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