Solar eclipse of February 16, 1980

Solar eclipse of February 16, 1980
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.2224
Magnitude	1.0434
Maximum eclipse
Duration	248 sec (4 m 8 s)
Coordinates
Max. width of band	149 km (93 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	8:54:01
References
Saros	130 (50 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9464

A total solar eclipse occurred on February 16, 1980. 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. The path of totality crossed central Africa, southern India, and into China at sunset.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1979-1982

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 1979 to 1982

Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
120	February 26, 1979 Total		125	August 22, 1979 Annular
130	February 16, 1980 Total		135	August 10, 1980 Annular
140	February 4, 1981 Annular		145	July 31, 1981 Total
150	January 25, 1982 Partial		155	July 20, 1982 Partial
Partial solar eclipses on June 21, 1982 and December 15, 1982 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 130

It is a part of Saros cycle 130, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 73 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1096. It contains total eclipses from April 5, 1475 through July 18, 2232. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on October 25, 2394. The longest duration of totality was 6 minutes, 41 seconds on July 11, 1619.

Series members between 1901 and 2100

Series members 46-56 occur between 1901 and 2100:

46	47	48
January 3, 1908	January 14, 1926	January 25, 1944
49	50	51
February 5, 1962	February 16, 1980	February 26, 1998
52	53	54
March 9, 2016	March 20, 2034	March 30, 2052
55	56
April 11, 2070	April 21, 2088

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).

This series has 21 eclipse events between July 11, 1953 and July 11, 2029.

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• Foto Solar eclipse of February 16, 1980
• Prof. Druckmüller's eclipse photography site, Solar eclipse of February 16, 1980