Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966

An annular solar eclipse occurred on May 20, 1966. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Annularity was visible from Guinea (including the capital city Conakry), Mali, Algeria, Libya, Greece, Turkey, the Soviet Union (today's Russia and Kazakhstan) and China. The Sun's altitude was 70°.

Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.3467
Magnitude	0.9991
Maximum eclipse
Duration	5 sec (0 m 5 s)
Coordinates	39.2°N 26.4°E
Max. width of band	3 km (1.9 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	9:39:02
References
Saros	137 (33 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9434

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1964–1967

This eclipse is a member of a 1964–1967 series at alternating nodes every 6 synodic months.

Note: Partial solar eclipses on January 14, 1964 and July 9, 1964 belong to the previous lunar year set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1964–1967
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
117	1964 June 10 Partial	-1.13926		122	1964 December 4 Partial	1.11929
127	1965 May 30 Total	-0.42251		132	1965 November 23 Annular	0.39061
137	1966 May 20 Annular	0.34672		142	1966 November 12 Total	-0.33001
147	1967 May 9 Partial	1.14218		152	1967 November 2 Total (non-central)	-1.00067

Saros 137

It is a part of Saros cycle 137, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 25, 1389. It contains total eclipses from August 20, 1533 through December 6, 1695, first set of hybrid eclipses from December 17, 1713 through February 11, 1804, first set of annular eclipses from February 21, 1822 through March 25, 1876, second set of hybrid eclipses from April 6, 1894 through April 28, 1930, and second set of annular eclipses from May 9, 1948 through April 13, 2507. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 28, 2633. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 55 seconds on September 10, 1569. Solar Saros 137 has 55 umbral eclipses from August 20, 1533 through April 13, 2507 (973.62 years).

Series members 30–40 occur between 1901 and 2100:
30	31	32
April 17, 1912	April 28, 1930	May 9, 1948
33	34	35
May 20, 1966	May 30, 1984	June 10, 2002
36	37	38
June 21, 2020	July 2, 2038	July 12, 2056
39	40
July 24, 2074	August 3, 2092

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 ascending node.

22 eclipse events between December 24, 1916 and July 31, 2000
December 24–25	October 12–13	July 31-Aug 1	May 18–20	March 7–8
91	93	95	97	99
December 23, 1878	October 12, 1882	July 31, 1886	May 18, 1890	March 7, 1894
101	103	105	107	109
December 23, 1897	October 12, 1901	August 1, 1905	May 19, 1909	March 8, 1913
111	113	115	117	119
December 24, 1916	October 12, 1920	July 31, 1924	May 19, 1928	March 7, 1932
121	123	125	127	129
December 25, 1935	October 12, 1939	August 1, 1943	May 20, 1947	March 7, 1951
131	133	135	137	139
December 25, 1954	October 12, 1958	July 31, 1962	May 20, 1966	March 7, 1970
141	143	145	147	149
December 24, 1973	October 12, 1977	July 31, 1981	May 19, 1985	March 7, 1989
151	153	155	157	159
December 24, 1992	October 12, 1996	July 31, 2000	May 19, 2004	March 7, 2008
161	163	165	167	169
December 24, 2011	October 13, 2015	August 1, 2019	May 19, 2023	March 8, 2027

Notes

References

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