Solar eclipse of March 18, 1969
# Solar eclipse of March 18, 1969

An annular solar eclipse occurred on March 18, 1969. 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. Annularity was visible from part of Indonesia, and two atolls (Faraulep and Gaferut) in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands which belongs to the Federated States of Micronesia now.

## Related eclipses

### Solar eclipses of 1968–1971

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 1968–1971 :

| Ascending node | Ascending node | Ascending node | Descending node | Descending node | Descending node |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma |
| 119 | 1968 March 28 Partial | -1.03704 | 124 | 1968 September 22 Total | 0.94507 |
| 129 | 1969 March 18 Annular | -0.27037 | 134 | 1969 September 11 Annular | 0.22014 |
| 139 | 1970 March 7 Total | 0.44728 | 144 | 1970 August 31 Annular | -0.53640 |
| 149 | 1971 February 25 Partial | 1.11876 | 154 | 1971 August 20 Partial | -1.26591 |
| A partial solar eclipse of July 22, 1971 occurs in the next lunar year set. |||||||

### Saros 129

It is a part of Saros cycle 129, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 80 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on October 3, 1103. It contains annular eclipses on May 6, 1464 through March 18, 1969, hybrid eclipses from March 29, 1987 through April 20, 2023 and total eclipses from April 30, 2041 through July 26, 2185. The series ends at member 80 as a partial eclipse on February 21, 2528. The longest duration of totality was 3 minutes, 43 seconds on June 25, 2131 . All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s ascending node.

Series members 46–56 occur between 1901 and 2100: :

| 46 | 47 | 48 |
| - | - | - |
| February 14, 1915 | February 24, 1933 | March 7, 1951 |
| 49 | 50 | 51 |
| March 18, 1969 | March 29, 1987 | April 8, 2005 |
| 52 | 53 | 54 |
| April 20, 2023 | April 30, 2041 | May 11, 2059 |
| 55 | 56 |
| May 22, 2077 | June 2, 2095 |

### 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.

Series members between 1901 and 2100 :

| September 21, 1903 (Saros 123) | August 21, 1914 (Saros 124) | July 20, 1925 (Saros 125) |
| - | - | - |
| June 19, 1936 (Saros 126) | May 20, 1947 (Saros 127) | April 19, 1958 (Saros 128) |
| March 18, 1969 (Saros 129) | February 16, 1980 (Saros 130) | January 15, 1991 (Saros 131) |
| December 14, 2001 (Saros 132) | November 13, 2012 (Saros 133) | October 14, 2023 (Saros 134) |
| September 12, 2034 (Saros 135) | August 12, 2045 (Saros 136) | July 12, 2056 (Saros 137) |
| June 11, 2067 (Saros 138) | May 11, 2078 (Saros 139) | April 10, 2089 (Saros 140) |
| March 10, 2100 (Saros 141) | |

### 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 ascending node.

22 eclipse events between January 5, 1935 and August 11, 2018 :

| January 4-5 | October 23-24 | August 10-12 | May 30-31 | March 18-19 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 111 | 113 | 115 | 117 | 119 |
| January 5, 1935 | | August 12, 1942 | May 30, 1946 | March 18, 1950 |
| 121 | 123 | 125 | 127 | 129 |
| January 5, 1954 | October 23, 1957 | August 11, 1961 | May 30, 1965 | March 18, 1969 |
| 131 | 133 | 135 | 137 | 139 |
| January 4, 1973 | October 23, 1976 | August 10, 1980 | May 30, 1984 | March 18, 1988 |
| 141 | 143 | 145 | 147 | 149 |
| January 4, 1992 | October 24, 1995 | August 11, 1999 | May 31, 2003 | March 19, 2007 |
| 151 | 153 | 155 |
| January 4, 2011 | October 23, 2014 | August 11, 2018 | | |
