A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, January 23, 1917, with a magnitude of 0.7254. 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. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.

This was the first of four solar eclipses in 1917, with the others occurring on June 19, July 19, and December 14.

A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Northeast Africa, Europe, West Asia, and Central Asia.

The date of this eclipse was also Lunar New Year, celebrated in many places in Asia, where this eclipse was visible.

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.

January 23, 1917 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1917 January 23 at 05:43:32.4 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1917 January 23 at 07:28:31.3 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1917 January 23 at 07:39:57.6 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1917 January 23 at 08:08:41.5 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1917 January 23 at 09:13:12.8 UTC
January 23, 1917 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.72542
Eclipse Obscuration0.66080
Gamma1.15085
Sun Right Ascension20h20m08.5s
Sun Declination-19°33'15.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'14.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension20h18m33.1s
Moon Declination-18°26'25.6"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'44.5"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax1°01'26.6"
ΔT19.1 s

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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Eclipse season of December 1916–January 1917
December 24 Ascending node (new moon)January 8 Descending node (full moon)January 23 Ascending node (new moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 111Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 123Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 149

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1917

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 18, 1908
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 28, 1926

Tritos

Solar Saros 149

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1913–1917

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 eclipses on April 6, 1913 and September 30, 1913 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on December 24, 1916 (partial), June 19, 1917 (partial), and December 14, 1917 (annular) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1913 to 1917
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
114August 31, 1913 Partial1.4512119February 25, 1914 Annular−0.9416
124August 21, 1914 Total0.7655129February 14, 1915 Annular−0.2024
134August 10, 1915 Annular0.0124139February 3, 1916 Total0.4987
144July 30, 1916 Annular−0.7709149January 23, 1917 Partial1.1508
154July 19, 1917 Partial−1.5101

Saros 149

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 149, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 21, 1664. It contains total eclipses from April 9, 2043 through October 2, 2331; hybrid eclipses from October 13, 2349 through November 3, 2385; and annular eclipses from November 15, 2403 through July 13, 2800. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on September 28, 2926. 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 will be produced by member 31 at 4 minutes, 10 seconds on July 17, 2205, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 62 at 5 minutes, 6 seconds on June 21, 2764. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

Series members 9–30 occur between 1801 and 2200:
91011
November 18, 1808November 29, 1826December 9, 1844
121314
December 21, 1862December 31, 1880January 11, 1899
151617
January 23, 1917February 3, 1935February 14, 1953
181920
February 25, 1971March 7, 1989March 19, 2007
212223
March 29, 2025April 9, 2043April 20, 2061
242526
May 1, 2079May 11, 2097May 24, 2115
272829
June 3, 2133June 14, 2151June 25, 2169
30
July 6, 2187

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 ascending node.

25 eclipse events between April 5, 1837 and June 17, 1928
April 5–6January 22–23November 10–11August 28–30June 17–18
107109111113115
April 5, 1837January 22, 1841November 10, 1844August 28, 1848June 17, 1852
117119121123125
April 5, 1856January 23, 1860November 11, 1863August 29, 1867June 18, 1871
127129131133135
April 6, 1875January 22, 1879November 10, 1882August 29, 1886June 17, 1890
137139141143145
April 6, 1894January 22, 1898November 11, 1901August 30, 1905June 17, 1909
147149151153155
April 6, 1913January 23, 1917November 10, 1920August 30, 1924June 17, 1928

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.

Series members between 1801 and 1982
November 29, 1807 (Saros 139)October 29, 1818 (Saros 140)September 28, 1829 (Saros 141)August 27, 1840 (Saros 142)July 28, 1851 (Saros 143)
June 27, 1862 (Saros 144)May 26, 1873 (Saros 145)April 25, 1884 (Saros 146)March 26, 1895 (Saros 147)February 23, 1906 (Saros 148)
January 23, 1917 (Saros 149)December 24, 1927 (Saros 150)November 21, 1938 (Saros 151)October 21, 1949 (Saros 152)September 20, 1960 (Saros 153)
August 20, 1971 (Saros 154)July 20, 1982 (Saros 155)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
April 13, 1801 (Saros 145)March 24, 1830 (Saros 146)March 4, 1859 (Saros 147)
February 11, 1888 (Saros 148)January 23, 1917 (Saros 149)January 3, 1946 (Saros 150)
December 13, 1974 (Saros 151)November 23, 2003 (Saros 152)November 3, 2032 (Saros 153)
October 13, 2061 (Saros 154)September 23, 2090 (Saros 155)September 5, 2119 (Saros 156)
August 14, 2148 (Saros 157)July 25, 2177 (Saros 158)

External links