Solar eclipse of April 8, 1921

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Friday, April 8, 1921, with a magnitude of 0.9753. 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. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.5 days after apogee (on April 1, 1921, at 20:50 UTC) and 8.3 days before perigee (on April 16, 1921, at 16:10 UTC).

Annularity was visible from northern Scotland, northwestern tip of Norway, and islands in the Arctic Ocean in Russian SFSR. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of North Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and the Russian SFSR.

Eclipse details

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.

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 1921

• An annular solar eclipse on April 8.
• A total lunar eclipse on April 22.
• A total solar eclipse on October 1.
• A partial lunar eclipse on October 16.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 19, 1917
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 24, 1925

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 25, 1914
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 19, 1928

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 1, 1912
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 13, 1930

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 1910
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 7, 1932

Solar Saros 118

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 29, 1903
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 19, 1939

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 26, 1892
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1950

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 7, 1834
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 7, 2008

Solar eclipses of 1921–1924

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.

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

Saros 118

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 118, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 24, 803 AD. It contains total eclipses from August 19, 947 AD through October 25, 1650; hybrid eclipses on November 4, 1668 and November 15, 1686; and annular eclipses from November 27, 1704 through April 30, 1957. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on July 15, 2083. 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 34 at 6 minutes, 59 seconds on May 16, 1398, and the longest duration of annularity was produced by member 59 at 1 minutes, 58 seconds on February 23, 1849. 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.

Notes

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC