A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, March 27, 1960, with a magnitude of 0.7058. 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 partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.

A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Antarctica and Australia.

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.

March 27, 1960 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1960 March 27 at 05:28:45.5 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1960 March 27 at 06:43:57.7 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1960 March 27 at 07:25:07.4 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1960 March 27 at 07:37:51.6 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1960 March 27 at 09:21:54.0 UTC
March 27, 1960 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.70578
Eclipse Obscuration0.62365
Gamma−1.15375
Sun Right Ascension00h24m22.7s
Sun Declination+02°38'08.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'01.4"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension00h25m42.2s
Moon Declination+01°35'48.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'29.5"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°56'51.5"
ΔT33.3 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 March 1960
March 13 Ascending node (full moon)March 27 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 122Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 148

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1960

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 148

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1957–1960

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1957 to 1960
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
118April 30, 1957 Annular (non-central)0.9992123October 23, 1957 Total (non-central)1.0022
128April 19, 1958 Annular0.275133October 12, 1958 Total−0.2951
138April 8, 1959 Annular−0.4546143October 2, 1959 Total0.4207
148March 27, 1960 Partial−1.1537153September 20, 1960 Partial1.2057

Saros 148

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 148, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 75 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on September 21, 1653. It contains annular eclipses on April 29, 2014 and May 9, 2032; a hybrid eclipse on May 20, 2050; and total eclipses from May 31, 2068 through August 3, 2771. The series ends at member 75 as a partial eclipse on December 12, 2987. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 22 at 22 seconds (by default) on May 9, 2032, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 54 at 5 minutes, 23 seconds on April 26, 2609. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 10–31 occur between 1801 and 2200:
101112
December 30, 1815January 9, 1834January 21, 1852
131415
January 31, 1870February 11, 1888February 23, 1906
161718
March 5, 1924March 16, 1942March 27, 1960
192021
April 7, 1978April 17, 1996April 29, 2014
222324
May 9, 2032May 20, 2050May 31, 2068
252627
June 11, 2086June 22, 2104July 4, 2122
282930
July 14, 2140July 25, 2158August 4, 2176
31
August 16, 2194

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

22 eclipse events between March 27, 1884 and August 20, 1971
March 27–29January 14November 1–2August 20–21June 8
108110112114116
March 27, 1884August 20, 1895June 8, 1899
118120122124126
March 29, 1903January 14, 1907November 2, 1910August 21, 1914June 8, 1918
128130132134136
March 28, 1922January 14, 1926November 1, 1929August 21, 1933June 8, 1937
138140142144146
March 27, 1941January 14, 1945November 1, 1948August 20, 1952June 8, 1956
148150152154
March 27, 1960January 14, 1964November 2, 1967August 20, 1971

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

The partial solar eclipses on November 16, 2134 (part of Saros 164) and October 16, 2145 (part of Saros 165) are also a part of this series but are not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2069
June 6, 1807 (Saros 134)May 5, 1818 (Saros 135)April 3, 1829 (Saros 136)March 4, 1840 (Saros 137)February 1, 1851 (Saros 138)
December 31, 1861 (Saros 139)November 30, 1872 (Saros 140)October 30, 1883 (Saros 141)September 29, 1894 (Saros 142)August 30, 1905 (Saros 143)
July 30, 1916 (Saros 144)June 29, 1927 (Saros 145)May 29, 1938 (Saros 146)April 28, 1949 (Saros 147)March 27, 1960 (Saros 148)
February 25, 1971 (Saros 149)January 25, 1982 (Saros 150)December 24, 1992 (Saros 151)November 23, 2003 (Saros 152)October 23, 2014 (Saros 153)
September 21, 2025 (Saros 154)August 21, 2036 (Saros 155)July 22, 2047 (Saros 156)June 21, 2058 (Saros 157)May 20, 2069 (Saros 158)

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
July 6, 1815 (Saros 143)June 16, 1844 (Saros 144)May 26, 1873 (Saros 145)
May 7, 1902 (Saros 146)April 18, 1931 (Saros 147)March 27, 1960 (Saros 148)
March 7, 1989 (Saros 149)February 15, 2018 (Saros 150)January 26, 2047 (Saros 151)
January 6, 2076 (Saros 152)December 17, 2104 (Saros 153)November 26, 2133 (Saros 154)
November 7, 2162 (Saros 155)October 18, 2191 (Saros 156)

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