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Solar eclipse of March 17, 1923

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Solar eclipse of March 17, 1923
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma−0.5438
Magnitude0.931
Maximum eclipse
Duration471 s (7 min 51 s)
Coordinates33°00′S 2°24′E / 33°S 2.4°E / -33; 2.4
Max. width of band305 km (190 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse12:44:58
References
Saros138 (26 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)9334

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, March 17, 1923,[1] with a magnitude of 0.931. 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 about 1.7 days before apogee (on March 19, 1923, at 20:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]

Annularity was visible from Chile, Argentina, Falkland Islands including capital Stanley, Gough Island in Tristan da Cunha, South West Africa (today's Namibia), Bechuanaland Protectorate (today's Botswana, Southern Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe) including capital Salisbury, Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), Nyasaland (today's Malawi), French Madagascar (the part now belonging to Madagascar, and the Islands of Juan de Nova and Tromelin). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of southern South America, Southern Africa, Central Africa, and Antarctica.

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]

March 17, 1923 Solar Eclipse Times
Event Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact 1923 March 17 at 09:50:46.8 UTC
First Umbral External Contact 1923 March 17 at 11:02:32.4 UTC
First Central Line 1923 March 17 at 11:05:55.6 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact 1923 March 17 at 11:09:20.9 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction 1923 March 17 at 12:24:30.3 UTC
Greatest Duration 1923 March 17 at 12:44:57.5 UTC
Greatest Eclipse 1923 March 17 at 12:44:57.7 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction 1923 March 17 at 12:51:27.3 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact 1923 March 17 at 14:20:49.0 UTC
Last Central Line 1923 March 17 at 14:24:15.1 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact 1923 March 17 at 14:27:39.2 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact 1923 March 17 at 15:39:20.9 UTC
March 17, 1923 Solar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter Value
Eclipse Magnitude 0.93100
Eclipse Obscuration 0.86676
Gamma −0.54381
Sun Right Ascension 23h44m59.2s
Sun Declination -01°37'34.5"
Sun Semi-Diameter 16'04.2"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8"
Moon Right Ascension 23h45m34.9s
Moon Declination -02°05'35.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter 14'46.5"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°54'13.4"
ΔT 23.1 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 March 1923
March 3
Ascending node (full moon)
March 17
Descending node (new moon)
Partial lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 112
Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 138
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Eclipses in 1923

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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 138

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Inex

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Triad

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Solar eclipses of 1921–1924

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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 eclipse on July 31, 1924 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1921 to 1924
Descending node   Ascending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
118 April 8, 1921

Annular
0.8869 123 October 1, 1921

Total
−0.9383
128 March 28, 1922

Annular
0.1711 133 September 21, 1922

Total
−0.213
138 March 17, 1923

Annular
−0.5438 143 September 10, 1923

Total
0.5149
148 March 5, 1924

Partial
−1.2232 153 August 30, 1924

Partial
1.3123

Saros 138

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This eclipse is a part of Saros series 138, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 6, 1472. It contains annular eclipses from August 31, 1598 through February 18, 2482; a hybrid eclipse on March 1, 2500; and total eclipses from March 12, 2518 through April 3, 2554. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on July 11, 2716. 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 annularity was produced by member 23 at 8 minutes, 2 seconds on February 11, 1869, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 61 at 56 seconds on April 3, 2554. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.[5]

Series members 20–41 occur between 1801 and 2200:
20 21 22

January 10, 1815

January 20, 1833

February 1, 1851
23 24 25

February 11, 1869

February 22, 1887

March 6, 1905
26 27 28

March 17, 1923

March 27, 1941

April 8, 1959
29 30 31

April 18, 1977

April 29, 1995

May 10, 2013
32 33 34

May 21, 2031

May 31, 2049

June 11, 2067
35 36 37

June 22, 2085

July 4, 2103

July 14, 2121
38 39 40

July 25, 2139

August 5, 2157

August 16, 2175
41

August 26, 2193

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 descending node.

22 eclipse events between March 16, 1866 and August 9, 1953
March 16–17 January 1–3 October 20–22 August 9–10 May 27–29
108 110 112 114 116

March 16, 1866

August 9, 1877

May 27, 1881
118 120 122 124 126

March 16, 1885

January 1, 1889

October 20, 1892

August 9, 1896

May 28, 1900
128 130 132 134 136

March 17, 1904

January 3, 1908

October 22, 1911

August 10, 1915

May 29, 1919
138 140 142 144 146

March 17, 1923

January 3, 1927

October 21, 1930

August 10, 1934

May 29, 1938
148 150 152 154

March 16, 1942

January 3, 1946

October 21, 1949

August 9, 1953

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

February 21, 1803
(Saros 127)

January 21, 1814
(Saros 128)

December 20, 1824
(Saros 129)

November 20, 1835
(Saros 130)

October 20, 1846
(Saros 131)

September 18, 1857
(Saros 132)

August 18, 1868
(Saros 133)

July 19, 1879
(Saros 134)

June 17, 1890
(Saros 135)

May 18, 1901
(Saros 136)

April 17, 1912
(Saros 137)

March 17, 1923
(Saros 138)

February 14, 1934
(Saros 139)

January 14, 1945
(Saros 140)

December 14, 1955
(Saros 141)

November 12, 1966
(Saros 142)

October 12, 1977
(Saros 143)

September 11, 1988
(Saros 144)

August 11, 1999
(Saros 145)

July 11, 2010
(Saros 146)

June 10, 2021
(Saros 147)

May 9, 2032
(Saros 148)

April 9, 2043
(Saros 149)

March 9, 2054
(Saros 150)

February 5, 2065
(Saros 151)

January 6, 2076
(Saros 152)

December 6, 2086
(Saros 153)

November 4, 2097
(Saros 154)

October 5, 2108
(Saros 155)

September 5, 2119
(Saros 156)

August 4, 2130
(Saros 157)

July 3, 2141
(Saros 158)

June 3, 2152
(Saros 159)

April 1, 2174
(Saros 161)

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

June 6, 1807
(Saros 134)

May 15, 1836
(Saros 135)

April 25, 1865
(Saros 136)

April 6, 1894
(Saros 137)

March 17, 1923
(Saros 138)

February 25, 1952
(Saros 139)

February 4, 1981
(Saros 140)

January 15, 2010
(Saros 141)

December 26, 2038
(Saros 142)

December 6, 2067
(Saros 143)

November 15, 2096
(Saros 144)

October 26, 2125
(Saros 145)

October 7, 2154
(Saros 146)

September 16, 2183
(Saros 147)

Notes

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  1. ^ "March 17, 1923 Annular Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Annular Solar Eclipse of 1923 Mar 17". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 2 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 138". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

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