A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Tuesday, June 28 and Wednesday, June 29, 1927, with a magnitude of 1.0128. 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 20 hours after perigee (on June 28, 1927, at 10:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
The path of totality crossed far northern Europe and Asia, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Soviet Union (today's Russia) on June 29 (Wednesday), and finally passed Amukta in Alaska on June 28 (Tuesday). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Europe, North Africa, North Asia, and northern North America.
Observation
United Kingdom This was the first total eclipse visible from British mainland soil for 203 years. The Astronomer Royal set up a camp to observe the eclipse from the grounds of Giggleswick School in North Yorkshire, which was on the line of totality. An observer at Southport, where an estimated quarter of a million people were on the shore to watch, described the eclipse for the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, describing it as "those memorable 23 seconds ... a landmark forever in the lives of those privileged to see for the first time the Sun's Corona, whose secrets are only revealed to us for some few minutes in each century."
This eclipse is referenced in the closing pages of Dorothy L. Sayers' novel Unnatural Death. Frances Brody's 2017 novel Death in the Stars is set at Giggleswick School while crowds were there to view the eclipse.
Virginia Woolf recorded her impression of the eclipse, including the words "We had fallen. It was extinct. There was no colour. The earth was dead."
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.
+June 29, 1927 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1927 June 29 at 04:00:07.6 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1927 June 29 at 05:20:27.1 UTC First Central Line 1927 June 29 at 05:20:38.0 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 1927 June 29 at 05:20:49.1 UTC Greatest Duration 1927 June 29 at 06:21:22.6 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1927 June 29 at 06:23:27.1 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1927 June 29 at 06:27:51.0 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1927 June 29 at 06:32:16.1 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 1927 June 29 at 07:26:05.2 UTC Last Central Line 1927 June 29 at 07:26:13.4 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1927 June 29 at 07:26:21.6 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1927 June 29 at 08:46:50.3 UTC
+June 29, 1927 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.01277 Eclipse Obscuration 1.02570 Gamma 0.81630 Sun Right Ascension 06h28m24.1s Sun Declination +23°17'17.5" Sun Semi-Diameter 15'43.9" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.6" Moon Right Ascension 06h28m13.9s Moon Declination +24°04'25.1" Moon Semi-Diameter 15'47.4" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°57'56.9" ΔT 24.4 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 June 1927 June 15Descending node (full moon) June 29Ascending node (new moon) Total lunar eclipseLunar Saros 119 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 145
Related eclipses Eclipses in 1927 An annular solar eclipse on January 3. A total lunar eclipse on June 15. A total solar eclipse on June 29. A total lunar eclipse on December 8. A partial solar eclipse on December 24.
Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 10, 1923 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1931
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 18, 1920 Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 10, 1934
Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of June 24, 1918 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 4, 1936
Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 30, 1916 Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 29, 1938
Solar Saros 145 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 17, 1909 Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 9, 1945
Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 18, 1898 Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1956
Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 27, 1840 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 29, 2014
Solar eclipses of 1924–1928
Saros 145
Metonic series
Tritos series
Inex series
See also List of solar eclipses visible from Russia List of solar eclipses visible from the United Kingdom
References
Sources
Fotos of Solar Corona June 29, 1927 Russia expedition for solar eclipse of June 29, 1927
External links Recording the eclipse video of the Astronomer Royal's preparations, from Pathé News