Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966

Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.3467
Magnitude	0.9991
Maximum eclipse
Duration	5 s (0 min 5 s)
Coordinates	39°12′N 26°24′E / 39.2°N 26.4°E / 39.2; 26.4
Max. width of band	3 km (1.9 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	9:39:02
References
Saros	137 (33 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9434

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, May 20, 1966,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.9991. 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.8 days after apogee (on May 13, 1966, at 14:00 UTC) and 7.2 days before perigee (on May 27, 1966, at 15:00 UTC).^[2]

Annularity was visible from Guinea (including the capital city Conakry), Mali, Algeria, Libya, Greece, Turkey, the Soviet Union (today's Russia and Kazakhstan) and China. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of North Africa, Central Africa, Northeast Africa, Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and South Asia.