Solar eclipse of July 10, 1972


A total solar eclipse occurred on July 10, 1972. 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. Occurring only 2.9 days after perigee, the Moon’s diameter was a relatively large.
It was visible as a total eclipse along a path of totality that began in Sea of Okhotsk and traversed the far eastern portions of the Soviet Union, northern Alaska in the United States, Northern Canada, eastern Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes. A partial eclipse was visible over Siberia, Canada and the northern and eastern United States.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1971–1974

Saros 126

Metonic series

"You're So Vain"

The eclipse is referenced in the lyrics of Carly Simon's 1972 hit song "You're So Vain." The subject of the song, after witnessing his racehorse win "naturally" at the Saratoga Race Course, flies his Learjet to Nova Scotia to see the eclipse; Simon uses the two phenomena as examples of how the subject seems to be "where should be all the time." Simon released the song four months after the eclipse.