Solar eclipse of April 8, 1959

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 8, 1959, with a magnitude of 0.9401. 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 2.9 days after apogee (on April 10, 1959, at 23:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Annularity was visible from Australia, southeastern tip of Milne Bay Province in the Territory of Papua New Guinea (today's Papua New Guinea), British Solomon Islands (today's Solomon Islands), Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the part now belonging to Tuvalu), Tokelau, and Swains Island in American Samoa. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Australia, Antarctica, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

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 1959

• A partial lunar eclipse on March 24.
• An annular solar eclipse on April 8.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 17.
• A total solar eclipse on October 2.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 20, 1955
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 25, 1963

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 25, 1952
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 20, 1966

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 2, 1950
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 13, 1968

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 1948
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 7, 1970

Solar Saros 138

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 27, 1941
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1977

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1930
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 6, 1872
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 5, 2046

Solar eclipses of 1957–1960

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.

Notes

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC