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Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887

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Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureTotal
Gamma0.6312
Magnitude1.0518
Maximum eclipse
Duration230 s (3 min 50 s)
Coordinates50°36′N 111°54′E / 50.6°N 111.9°E / 50.6; 111.9
Max. width of band221 km (137 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse5:32:05
References
Saros143 (16 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)9251

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, August 19, 1887, with a magnitude of 1.0518. 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 about 1.8 days before perigee (on August 21, 1887, at 0:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[1]

The path of totality was visible from parts of modern-day Germany, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, southeastern Latvia, Russia, Mongolia, China, North Korea, and Japan. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of Europe, Northeast Africa, Asia, northern Greenland, and Alaska.

Observations

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The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev ascended in a balloon near Moscow to observe this eclipse. The weather in Tver Governorate was cloudy and it was rain at morning, so Mendeleev forced to fly alone. He made some notes at 6:55, 20 minutes after the start, and made some observations of the solar corona. For this flight, the scientist was awarded the medal of the Academy of Aerostatic Meteorology.[2]


Partiality at sunrise from Berlin, Germany

Ilya Repin, “The Solar Eclipse of 1887” (“Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev on the aerostat”), 1887.

Russian writer Anton Chekhov published the short story "From the Diary of a Hot-Tempered Man" six weeks before the eclipse passed through Russia. The story includes a major section about the frustrations of a man who is trying to make a great variety of observations during the short interval of totality. In the story the eclipse date is given as 7 August 1887, as per the Julian Calendar then in use in Russia.

Eclipse details

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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.[3]

August 19, 1887 Solar Eclipse Times
Event Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact 1887 August 19 at 03:05:23.2 UTC
First Umbral External Contact 1887 August 19 at 04:09:44.3 UTC
First Central Line 1887 August 19 at 04:11:03.8 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact 1887 August 19 at 04:12:23.8 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction 1887 August 19 at 05:15:23.5 UTC
Greatest Duration 1887 August 19 at 05:31:45.2 UTC
Greatest Eclipse 1887 August 19 at 05:32:05.2 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction 1887 August 19 at 05:38:34.1 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact 1887 August 19 at 06:51:56.7 UTC
Last Central Line 1887 August 19 at 06:53:18.3 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact 1887 August 19 at 06:54:39.5 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact 1887 August 19 at 07:58:51.2 UTC
August 19, 1887 Solar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter Value
Eclipse Magnitude 1.05176
Eclipse Obscuration 1.10619
Gamma 0.63124
Sun Right Ascension 09h52m33.6s
Sun Declination +12°53'52.0"
Sun Semi-Diameter 15'48.5"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.7"
Moon Right Ascension 09h53m11.8s
Moon Declination +13°30'38.5"
Moon Semi-Diameter 16'24.8"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°00'14.3"
ΔT -6.0 s

Eclipse season

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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 August 1887
August 3
Descending node (full moon)
August 19
Ascending node (new moon)
Partial lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 117
Total solar eclipse
Solar Saros 143
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Eclipses in 1887

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Metonic

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Tzolkinex

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Half-Saros

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Tritos

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Solar Saros 143

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Inex

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Triad

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Solar eclipses of 1884–1888

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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.[4]

The partial solar eclipses on April 25, 1884 and October 19, 1884 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on July 9, 1888 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1884 to 1888
Descending node   Ascending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
108 March 27, 1884

Partial
1.4602 113
118 March 16, 1885

Annular
0.8030 123 September 8, 1885

Total
−0.8489
128 March 5, 1886

Annular
0.0970 133 August 29, 1886

Total
−0.1059
138 February 22, 1887

Annular
−0.6040 143 August 19, 1887

Total
0.6312
148 February 11, 1888

Partial
−1.2684 153 August 7, 1888

Partial
−1.2797

Saros 143

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This eclipse is a part of Saros series 143, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on March 7, 1617. It contains total eclipses from June 24, 1797 through October 24, 1995; hybrid eclipses from November 3, 2013 through December 6, 2067; and annular eclipses from December 16, 2085 through September 16, 2536. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on April 23, 2897. 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 totality was produced by member 16 at 3 minutes, 50 seconds on August 19, 1887, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 51 at 4 minutes, 54 seconds on September 6, 2518. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.[5]

Series members 12–33 occur between 1801 and 2200:
12 13 14

July 6, 1815

July 17, 1833

July 28, 1851
15 16 17

August 7, 1869

August 19, 1887

August 30, 1905
18 19 20

September 10, 1923

September 21, 1941

October 2, 1959
21 22 23

October 12, 1977

October 24, 1995

November 3, 2013
24 25 26

November 14, 2031

November 25, 2049

December 6, 2067
27 28 29

December 16, 2085

December 29, 2103

January 8, 2122
30 31 32

January 20, 2140

January 30, 2158

February 10, 2176
33

February 21, 2194

Metonic series

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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.

24 eclipse events between March 25, 1819 and August 20, 1906
March 25–26 January 11–12 October 30–31 August 18–20 June 6–7
107 109 111 113 115

March 25, 1819

January 12, 1823

October 31, 1826

August 18, 1830

June 7, 1834
117 119 121 123 125

March 25, 1838

January 11, 1842

October 30, 1845

August 18, 1849

June 6, 1853
127 129 131 133 135

March 25, 1857

January 11, 1861

October 30, 1864

August 18, 1868

June 6, 1872
137 139 141 143 145

March 25, 1876

January 11, 1880

October 30, 1883

August 19, 1887

June 6, 1891
147 149 151 153

March 26, 1895

January 11, 1899

October 31, 1902

August 20, 1906

Tritos series

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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 eclipse on November 4, 2116 (part of Saros 164) is also a part of this series but is not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2029

March 24, 1811
(Saros 136)

February 21, 1822
(Saros 137)

January 20, 1833
(Saros 138)

December 21, 1843
(Saros 139)

November 20, 1854
(Saros 140)

October 19, 1865
(Saros 141)

September 17, 1876
(Saros 142)

August 19, 1887
(Saros 143)

July 18, 1898
(Saros 144)

June 17, 1909
(Saros 145)

May 18, 1920
(Saros 146)

April 18, 1931
(Saros 147)

March 16, 1942
(Saros 148)

February 14, 1953
(Saros 149)

January 14, 1964
(Saros 150)

December 13, 1974
(Saros 151)

November 12, 1985
(Saros 152)

October 12, 1996
(Saros 153)

September 11, 2007
(Saros 154)

August 11, 2018
(Saros 155)

July 11, 2029
(Saros 156)

Inex series

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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

September 28, 1829
(Saros 141)

September 7, 1858
(Saros 142)

August 19, 1887
(Saros 143)

July 30, 1916
(Saros 144)

July 9, 1945
(Saros 145)

June 20, 1974
(Saros 146)

May 31, 2003
(Saros 147)

May 9, 2032
(Saros 148)

April 20, 2061
(Saros 149)

March 31, 2090
(Saros 150)

March 11, 2119
(Saros 151)

February 19, 2148
(Saros 152)

January 29, 2177
(Saros 153)

Notes

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  1. ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  2. ^ Кирилл Яблочкин. (19 October 2014). "Менделеев на воздушном шаре: история рискованного полёта великого химика" [Mendeleev in a balloon: the story of a risky flight of the great chemist] (in Russian). Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Total Solar Eclipse of 1887 Aug 19". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  4. ^ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  5. ^ "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 143". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

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