A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Friday, October 3, 1986,[1] with a magnitude of 1. It was a hybrid event, with only a fraction of its path as total, and longer sections at the start and end as an annular eclipse. 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 8.3 days after apogee (on September 25, 1986, at 11:00 UTC) and 3.7 days before perigee (on October 7, 1986, at 10:50 UTC).[2]
Totality occurred for a very short time (calculated at 0.08 seconds) in an area in the Atlantic Ocean, just east of the southern tip of Greenland. The path, on the surface of the Earth, was a narrow, tapered, horse-shoe, and visible only from a thin strip between Iceland and Greenland. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, and Iceland. This eclipse was the last central eclipse of Solar Saros 124 and the only hybrid eclipse of that cycle.
The only witnesses of a few seconds of brief totality were the "Gang of Nine" eclipse chasers aboard a plane at an altitude of 40,000 feet.[3]
The eclipse also resulted in litigation involving a Florida fourth grader whose eyes were allegedly damaged when he viewed the partial eclipse on school grounds. A lower court had dismissed the case on the grounds that the school had no duty to supervise the child after school hours. But the Florida Court of Appeals ruled in 1994 that the jury instruction on that question was improper, and remanded the case.[4]
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.[5]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1986 October 03 at 16:58:20.8 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1986 October 03 at 18:07:22.2 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1986 October 03 at 18:55:40.6 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1986 October 03 at 18:55:55.1 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1986 October 03 at 18:56:25.6 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1986 October 03 at 18:56:25.6 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1986 October 03 at 18:56:57.6 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1986 October 03 at 19:06:15.0 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1986 October 03 at 19:16:11.3 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1986 October 03 at 19:16:40.7 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1986 October 03 at 19:17:08.5 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1986 October 03 at 21:14:27.6 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.00002 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.00004 | |
| Gamma | 0.99305 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 12h37m45.8s | |
| Sun Declination | -04°04'06.7" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'59.2" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 12h39m37.6s | |
| Moon Declination | -03°13'11.4" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'58.2" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°58'36.8" | |
| ΔT | 55.2 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.