An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, July 31, 1962,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9716. 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. Occurring about 4.75 days before apogee (on August 5, 1962, at 6:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
Places inside the annular eclipse included Venezuela, northern Roraima in Brazil, Guyana, Dutch Guiana (today's Suriname) including the capital city Paramaribo, Senegal, Gambia Colony and Protectorate (today's Gambia) including the southern part of the capital city Banjul, Mali including the capital city Bamako, Upper Volta (today's Burkina Faso), Ghana, Togo, Dahomey (today's Benin), Nigeria, Cameroon including the capital city Yaoundé, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Léopoldville (today's DR Congo), Tanganyika (now belonging to Tanzania), northeastern tip of Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), French Comoros (today's Comoros), Mayotte, and the Malagasy Republic (today's Madagascar). The greatest eclipse was in the area of Kouoro, Mali at 12 N, 5.7 W at 12:25 (UTC) and lasted for 3 minutes.[3] A partial eclipse was visible for parts of the Caribbean, northern South America, Africa, Southern Europe, and the Middle East.
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.[4]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1962 July 31 at 09:26:25.2 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1962 July 31 at 10:29:36.6 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1962 July 31 at 10:31:02.3 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1962 July 31 at 10:32:28.1 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 1962 July 31 at 11:36:22.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1962 July 31 at 12:19:39.3 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1962 July 31 at 12:24:14.3 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1962 July 31 at 12:25:32.5 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1962 July 31 at 12:27:38.6 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 1962 July 31 at 13:14:37.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1962 July 31 at 14:18:33.6 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1962 July 31 at 14:20:01.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1962 July 31 at 14:21:30.3 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1962 July 31 at 15:24:44.6 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.97158 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.94397 | |
| Gamma | −0.11296 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 08h40m53.9s | |
| Sun Declination | +18°19'06.7" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'45.4" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 08h40m49.8s | |
| Moon Declination | +18°12'57.5" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'04.6" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°55'19.7" | |
| ΔT | 34.3 s |
See also: Eclipse cycle. 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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
