Solar eclipse of July 9, 1945

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, July 9, 1945, with a magnitude of 1.018. 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 path of totality crossed northern North America, across Greenland and into Scandinavia, the western Soviet Union, and central Asia.

The eclipse was mostly seen on July 9, 1945, except for northeastern Soviet Union, where a partial eclipse was seen on July 10 local time, or starting on July 9, passing midnight and ending on July 10 due to the midnight sun.

Observation
Princeton University sent a team to observe the total eclipse southeast of Malta, Montana. The sun happened to appear from a gap in the clouds around the second contact (the beginning of the total phase). The total phase was not affected by the clouds afterwards, but clouds gradually moved closer to the sun, and blocking the sun during the partial phase after the total phase ended. Nobody saw Baily's beads, prominences or shadow bands there. The team from the Franklin Institute and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia went to Wolseley, Saskatchewan, Canada. The weather condition was clear before sunrise, with only some thin clouds near the horizon. The sun passed through a series of clouds after sunrise, and the weather kept good since then. The observation was successful. The team from the Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin observed the eclipse in Pine River in southwestern Manitoba, Canada. The eclipse occurred on the morning of July 9. The eastern sky was covered with clouds at sunrise. The sun came out from the clouds 25 minutes before totality, and half an hour later the entire sky was covered with clouds again. Because the local duration of totality was only 37 seconds, the team took small- and large-scale images of the corona at the same time in order to completely record the data, to study the characteristics of both the outer and inner corona. Since the eclipse occurred less than 2 months after the end of the European theatre of World War II, only a few Swedish teams, one Danish team and one French team managed to observe it from Scandinavia. Another small Norwegian team and some other teams in the Soviet Union did not make observations successfully due to the clouds. Among them, teams from the Stockholm Observatory, Sweden and Paris Observatory, France observed it in Brattås, Västerbotten, Sweden, and photographed the corona and spectra.

Eclipses in 1945

 * An annular solar eclipse on January 14, 1945.
 * A partial lunar eclipse on June 25, 1945.
 * A total solar eclipse on July 9, 1945.
 * A total lunar eclipse on December 19, 1945.

Metonic

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 21, 1941
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1949

Tzolkinex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 29, 1938
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 20, 1952

Half-Saros

 * Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 4, 1936
 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 16, 1954

Tritos

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 10, 1934
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1956

Solar Saros 145

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 20, 1963

Inex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 30, 1916
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 20, 1974

Triad

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 7, 1858
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 2032