Solar eclipse of April 29, 1995

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, April 29, 1995, with a magnitude of 0.9497. 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 3.5 days before apogee (on May 3, 1995, at 1:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Annularity was visible in Peru, southeastern Ecuador, southeastern Colombia and Brazil. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of South America, Mexico, Central America, Florida, the Caribbean, and West Africa.

Images

Observations

A team of NASA's Johnson Space Center observed the annular eclipse near Puinahua District in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. The weather was clear and the observations were successful.

Eclipse timing

Places experiencing annular eclipse

Places experiencing partial eclipse

Eclipse season

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.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1995

• A partial lunar eclipse on April 15.
• An annular solar eclipse on April 29.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on October 8.
• A total solar eclipse on October 24.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 11, 1991
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 10, 2002

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 24, 1986
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 4, 2004

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 30, 1984
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006

Solar Saros 138

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1977
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 10, 2013

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 28, 1908
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 27, 2082

Solar eclipses of 1993–1996

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.

Saros 138

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.

Metonic series

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.

Tritos series

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.

Inex series

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.

External links

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC

Photos:

• APOD 8/27/1997,