Solar eclipse of October 27, 1780
{{Short description|Total eclipse}}
{{Infobox solar eclipse|1780Oct27}}
A total solar eclipse occurred on October 27, 1780. 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.
Observations
During the American Revolutionary War, the first American solar eclipse expedition was organized and sent out from Harvard College in Massachusetts. A special immunity agreement was negotiated with the British to allow the scientists to work unharmed. The Harvard expedition, after all their efforts, missed the eclipse because they chose a site outside the path of totality. Modern analysis of this embarrassing incident for embryonic American science blames Samuel Williams for miscalculating the path of totality.[http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~toh/AstroLesson/jasa9107.txtSOLAR ECLIPSES IN HISTORY]{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} by Ken Poshedly
Related eclipses
It is a part of solar Saros 120.
See also
Notes
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References
- [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCSEmap/1701-1800/1780-10-27.gif NASA chart graphics]
- [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=17801027 Googlemap]
- [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEdata.php?Ecl=17801027 NASA Besselian elements]
- [https://www.jstor.org/pss/25053747 Observations of a Solar Eclipse, October 27, 1780], Made at St. John's Island, by Mess'rs. Clarke and Wright, by Joseph Peters 1783 American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
- [https://www.jstor.org/pss/25053746 A Memoir, Containing Observations of a Solar Eclipse of October 27, 1780] by Joseph Willard, 1783
- Where Did the 1780 Eclipse Go? Rothschild, Robert F., Sky and Telescope, 63:558, 1982
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