A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, July 9, 1945, with a magnitude of 1.018. 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 4.4 days after perigee (on July 5, 1945, at 4:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
The path of totality crossed Oregon, Idaho, and Montana in the northwestern United States, much of central and northeastern Canada, across Greenland and into Scandinavia, the western Soviet Union, and central Asia. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of North America, Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and the Soviet Union. The eclipse was mostly seen on July 9, 1945, except for northeastern Soviet Union, where a partial eclipse was seen on July 10 local time, or starting on July 9, passing midnight and ending on July 10 due to the midnight sun.
Observation Princeton University sent a team to observe the total eclipse southeast of Malta, Montana. The Sun happened to appear from a gap in the clouds around the second contact (the beginning of the total phase). The total phase was not affected by the clouds afterwards, but clouds gradually moved closer to the Sun, and blocking the Sun during the partial phase after the total phase ended. Nobody saw Baily's beads, prominences or shadow bands there. The team from the Franklin Institute and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia went to Wolseley, Saskatchewan, Canada. The weather condition was clear before sunrise, with only some thin clouds near the horizon. The Sun passed through a series of clouds after sunrise, and the weather kept good since then. The observation was successful. The team from the Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin observed the eclipse in Pine River in southwestern Manitoba, Canada. The eclipse occurred on the morning of July 9. The eastern sky was covered with clouds at sunrise. The sun came out from the clouds 25 minutes before totality, and half an hour later the entire sky was covered with clouds again. Because the local duration of totality was only 37 seconds, the team took small- and large-scale images of the corona at the same time in order to completely record the data, to study the characteristics of both the outer and inner corona. Since the eclipse occurred only two months after the end of the European theatre of World War II, only a few Swedish teams, one Danish team and one French team managed to observe it from Scandinavia. Another small Norwegian team and some other teams in the Soviet Union did not make observations successfully due to the clouds. Among them, teams from the Stockholm Observatory, Sweden and Paris Observatory, France observed it in Brattås, Västerbotten, Sweden, and photographed the corona and spectra.
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.
+July 9, 1945 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1945 July 09 at 10:59:59.7 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1945 July 09 at 12:13:56.0 UTC First Central Line 1945 July 09 at 12:14:14.5 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 1945 July 09 at 12:14:33.1 UTC Greatest Duration 1945 July 09 at 13:25:30.5 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1945 July 09 at 13:25:35.0 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1945 July 09 at 13:27:45.5 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1945 July 09 at 13:35:40.9 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 1945 July 09 at 14:41:02.5 UTC Last Central Line 1945 July 09 at 14:41:18.2 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1945 July 09 at 14:41:34.0 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1945 July 09 at 15:55:37.9 UTC
+July 9, 1945 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.01801 Eclipse Obscuration 1.03635 Gamma 0.73557 Sun Right Ascension 07h13m29.9s Sun Declination +22°22'15.4" Sun Semi-Diameter 15'43.9" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.6" Moon Right Ascension 07h13m34.9s Moon Declination +23°04'54.4" Moon Semi-Diameter 15'50.6" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°58'08.9" ΔT 27.0 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–July 1945 June 25Descending node (full moon) July 9Ascending node (new moon) Partial lunar eclipseLunar Saros 119 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 145
Related eclipses Eclipses in 1945 An annular solar eclipse on January 14. A partial lunar eclipse on June 25. A total solar eclipse on July 9. A total lunar eclipse on December 19.
Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 21, 1941 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1949
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 29, 1938 Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 20, 1952
Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 4, 1936 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 16, 1954
Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 10, 1934 Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1956
Solar Saros 145 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927 Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 20, 1963
Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 30, 1916 Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 20, 1974
Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 7, 1858 Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 2032
Solar eclipses of 1942–1946
Saros 145
Metonic series
Tritos series
Inex series
Notes
References