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Solar eclipse of December 3, 1918

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Solar eclipse of December 3, 1918
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma−0.2387
Magnitude0.9383
Maximum eclipse
Duration426 s (7 min 6 s)
Coordinates36°06′S 53°42′W / 36.1°S 53.7°W / -36.1; -53.7
Max. width of band236 km (147 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse15:22:02
References
Saros131 (45 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)9325

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, December 3, 1918,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9383. 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. Occurring 4.3 days after apogee (on November 29, 1918, at 7:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]

Annularity was visible from Chile including the capital city Santiago, Argentina including capital Buenos Aires, southern Uruguay including capital Montevideo, northeastern tip of South West Africa (today's Namibia) and southwestern Portuguese Angola (today's Angola). Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia, also lies in the path of annularity. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of South America, Antarctica, Southern Africa, and Central Africa.

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]

December 3, 1918 Solar Eclipse Times
Event Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact 1918 December 03 at 12:21:26.8 UTC
First Umbral External Contact 1918 December 03 at 13:26:14.8 UTC
First Central Line 1918 December 03 at 13:28:57.9 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact 1918 December 03 at 13:31:41.2 UTC
First Penumbral Internal Contact 1918 December 03 at 14:40:20.1 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction 1918 December 03 at 15:19:13.2 UTC
Greatest Eclipse 1918 December 03 at 15:22:01.5 UTC
Greatest Duration 1918 December 03 at 15:22:11.4 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction 1918 December 03 at 15:23:11.5 UTC
Last Penumbral Internal Contact 1918 December 03 at 16:03:41.9 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact 1918 December 03 at 17:12:22.6 UTC
Last Central Line 1918 December 03 at 17:15:03.6 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact 1918 December 03 at 17:17:44.3 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact 1918 December 03 at 18:22:30.4 UTC
December 3, 1918 Solar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter Value
Eclipse Magnitude 0.93826
Eclipse Obscuration 0.88034
Gamma −0.23873
Sun Right Ascension 16h36m17.1s
Sun Declination -22°03'17.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter 16'13.6"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.9"
Moon Right Ascension 16h36m14.8s
Moon Declination -22°16'22.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter 15'00.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°55'03.1"
ΔT 20.9 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 December 1918
December 3
Ascending node (new moon)
December 17
Descending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 131
Penumbral lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 143
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Eclipses in 1918

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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 131

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Inex

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Triad

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Solar eclipses of 1916–1920

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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 solar eclipses on February 3, 1916 (total), July 30, 1916 (annular), January 23, 1917 (partial), and July 19, 1917 (partial) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1916 to 1920
Ascending node   Descending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
111 December 24, 1916

Partial
−1.5321 116 June 19, 1917

Partial
1.2857
121 December 14, 1917

Annular
−0.9157 126 June 8, 1918

Total
0.4658
131 December 3, 1918

Annular
−0.2387 136

Totality in Príncipe
May 29, 1919

Total
−0.2955
141 November 22, 1919

Annular
0.4549 146 May 18, 1920

Partial
−1.0239
151 November 10, 1920

Partial
1.1287

Saros 131

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This eclipse is a part of Saros series 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 1, 1125. It contains total eclipses from March 27, 1522 through May 30, 1612; hybrid eclipses from June 10, 1630 through July 24, 1702; and annular eclipses from August 4, 1720 through June 18, 2243. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on September 2, 2369. 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 28 at 58 seconds on May 30, 1612, and the longest duration of annularity was produced by member 50 at 7 minutes, 54 seconds on January 26, 2009. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.[5]

Series members 39–60 occur between 1801 and 2200:
39 40 41

September 28, 1810

October 9, 1828

October 20, 1846
42 43 44

October 30, 1864

November 10, 1882

November 22, 1900
45 46 47

December 3, 1918

December 13, 1936

December 25, 1954
48 49 50

January 4, 1973

January 15, 1991

January 26, 2009
51 52 53

February 6, 2027

February 16, 2045

February 28, 2063
54 55 56

March 10, 2081

March 21, 2099

April 2, 2117
57 58 59

April 13, 2135

April 23, 2153

May 5, 2171
60

May 15, 2189

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.

22 eclipse events between December 2, 1880 and July 9, 1964
December 2–3 September 20–21 July 9–10 April 26–28 February 13–14
111 113 115 117 119

December 2, 1880

July 9, 1888

April 26, 1892

February 13, 1896
121 123 125 127 129

December 3, 1899

September 21, 1903

July 10, 1907

April 28, 1911

February 14, 1915
131 133 135 137 139

December 3, 1918

September 21, 1922

July 9, 1926

April 28, 1930

February 14, 1934
141 143 145 147 149

December 2, 1937

September 21, 1941

July 9, 1945

April 28, 1949

February 14, 1953
151 153 155

December 2, 1956

September 20, 1960

July 9, 1964

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200

October 9, 1809
(Saros 121)

September 7, 1820
(Saros 122)

August 7, 1831
(Saros 123)

July 8, 1842
(Saros 124)

June 6, 1853
(Saros 125)

May 6, 1864
(Saros 126)

April 6, 1875
(Saros 127)

March 5, 1886
(Saros 128)

February 1, 1897
(Saros 129)

January 3, 1908
(Saros 130)

December 3, 1918
(Saros 131)

November 1, 1929
(Saros 132)

October 1, 1940
(Saros 133)

September 1, 1951
(Saros 134)

July 31, 1962
(Saros 135)

June 30, 1973
(Saros 136)

May 30, 1984
(Saros 137)

April 29, 1995
(Saros 138)

March 29, 2006
(Saros 139)

February 26, 2017
(Saros 140)

January 26, 2028
(Saros 141)

December 26, 2038
(Saros 142)

November 25, 2049
(Saros 143)

October 24, 2060
(Saros 144)

September 23, 2071
(Saros 145)

August 24, 2082
(Saros 146)

July 23, 2093
(Saros 147)

June 22, 2104
(Saros 148)

May 24, 2115
(Saros 149)

April 22, 2126
(Saros 150)

March 21, 2137
(Saros 151)

February 19, 2148
(Saros 152)

January 19, 2159
(Saros 153)

December 18, 2169
(Saros 154)

November 17, 2180
(Saros 155)

October 18, 2191
(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

February 21, 1803
(Saros 127)

February 1, 1832
(Saros 128)

January 11, 1861
(Saros 129)

December 22, 1889
(Saros 130)

December 3, 1918
(Saros 131)

November 12, 1947
(Saros 132)

October 23, 1976
(Saros 133)

October 3, 2005
(Saros 134)

September 12, 2034
(Saros 135)

August 24, 2063
(Saros 136)

August 3, 2092
(Saros 137)

July 14, 2121
(Saros 138)

June 25, 2150
(Saros 139)

June 5, 2179
(Saros 140)

Notes

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  1. ^ "December 3, 1918 Annular Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Annular Solar Eclipse of 1918 Dec 03". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 1 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 131". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

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