A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Saturday, March 7, 1970, with a magnitude of 1.0414. 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 about 1.3 days after perigee (on March 6, 1970, at 10:30 UTC), this eclipse occurred when the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
The greatest eclipse occurred over Mexico at 11:38 am CST, with totality lasting 3 minutes and 27.65 seconds. Totality over the U.S. lasted up to 3 minutes and 10 seconds. The media declared Perry as the first municipality in Florida to be in the eclipse direct path.
Inclement weather obstructed the viewing from that location and most of the eclipse path through the remainder of the southern states. There was not an eclipse with a greater duration of totality over the contiguous U.S. until April 8, 2024, a period of 54 years.
Totality was visible across southern Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Nantucket, Massachusetts in the United States, northeast to the Maritimes of eastern Canada, and northern Miquelon-Langlade in the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Hawaii, North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.
Scientific effects This eclipse slowed a radio transmission of atomic time from North Carolina to Washington, D.C.Sadeh, D. (1971), Phase variation of a very accurate radio frequency signal due to the solar eclipse, J. Geophys. Res., 76(34), 8427–8429, doi:10.1029/JA076i034p08427
Observations An observation team from the Swiss Federal Observatory observed the total eclipse in Nejapa and Miahuatlán, Mexico. The weather conditions were good at both locations. Miahuatlán offered particularly good observation conditions with an altitude of 1,620 metres above sea level, high air quality and solar zenith angle of 63° at the time of the eclipse. The team took images of the corona and analyzed them with a polarizing filter. Austrian-American physicist Erwin Saxl and American physicist Mildred Allen reported anomalous changes in the period of a torsion pendulum when observing a partial solar eclipse with a magnitude of 0.954 from Harvard, Massachusetts, called the "Saxl Effect".
Visible Planets and Stars During totality, other celestial objects brighter than magnitude 1.5 often become visible. By far the brightest and therefore easiest object seen around totality on 7/3/1970 was Venus, which lay about an hour east of the eclipsed Sun. Mars and Saturn were about three hours east of the Sun with Saturn the brighter planet, while Mercury, 16 days away from superior conjunction (and therefore showing most of its sunlit side, making it bright), was an hour or so west of the Sun.https://rasc.ca/sites/default/files/publications/ObserversHandbook-1970.pdf Observers Handbook 1970, p. 36. Toronto: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Of the stars, Fomalhaut was almost due south of the Sun, the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair was well up in the west, and recently risen Aldebaran and Capella were in the east and northeast respectively.https://skyandtelescope.org/interactive-sky-chart/ Sky & Telescope Interactive Sky Chart
In popular culture
CBS showed the first color broadcast of a total eclipse.
This eclipse might be referenced in the second episode of the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show when a guest of Mary's accidentally exposes a roll of film that Howard Arnell, an ex-boyfriend of Mary's, says, "It's just the pictures I took of the total eclipse of the sun."
The eclipse may be referenced in the 1972 hit popular song “You're So Vain” by Carly Simon, although in context, the lyrics more closely align with a different eclipse two years later.
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.
+March 7, 1970 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1970 March 7 at 15:04:56.2 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1970 March 7 at 16:04:26.6 UTC First Central Line 1970 March 7 at 16:05:14.2 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 1970 March 7 at 16:06:01.9 UTC First Penumbral Internal Contact 1970 March 7 at 17:27:53.7 UTC Greatest Duration 1970 March 7 at 17:35:20.9 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1970 March 7 at 17:38:29.7 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1970 March 7 at 17:43:07.4 UTC Last Penumbral Internal Contact 1970 March 7 at 17:48:30.7 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1970 March 7 at 18:03:52.1 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 1970 March 7 at 19:10:43.5 UTC Last Central Line 1970 March 7 at 19:11:29.8 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1970 March 7 at 19:12:16.1 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1970 March 7 at 20:11:56.2 UTC
+March 7, 1970 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.04145 Eclipse Obscuration 1.08461 Gamma 0.44728 Sun Right Ascension 23h11m11.6s Sun Declination -05°14'13.6" Sun Semi-Diameter 16'06.8" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.9" Moon Right Ascension 23h10m19.7s Moon Declination -04°50'27.0" Moon Semi-Diameter 16'31.8" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°00'39.8" ΔT 40.4 s
Eclipse season
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, 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.
+ Eclipse season of February–March 1970 February 21Descending node (full moon) March 7Ascending node (new moon) Partial lunar eclipseLunar Saros 113 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 139
Related eclipses Eclipses in 1970 A partial lunar eclipse on February 21. A total solar eclipse on March 7. A partial lunar eclipse on August 17. An annular solar eclipse on August 31.
Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966 Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 24, 1973
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 25, 1963 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1977
Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 2, 1961 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1979
Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 1959 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 4, 1981
Solar Saros 139 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 25, 1952 Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988
Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 27, 1941 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999
Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 6, 1883 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 5, 2057
Solar eclipses of 1968–1971
Saros 139
Metonic series
Tritos series
Inex series
Notes
References
Maps: GoogleMap of totality and partiality limits
News: ABC NEWS 3:40 – March 7, 1970: Total Solar Eclipse The region near Nejapa, Mexico, is first to experience total darkness in midday.
Photos and observations Russia expedition Foto Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970 Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery 1 1970–1984, Photographs by Fred Espenak, from Windsor, NC Observations of coronal polarization at the solar eclipse of 7 March, 1970 Polarigraphic observations of the 7 March 1970 eclipse were made at Miahuatlán (Mexico) Solar Eclipse of March 7, 1970 Williamston, NC by Gerard M Foley