A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, January 24, 1925, with a magnitude of 1.0304. 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 total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.1 days after perigee (on January 23, 1925, at 13:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Totality was visible from southwestern and southeastern Ontario in Canada (including Toronto and Niagara Falls), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York (including the northern part of New York City), New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, West Africa, and Western Europe.

Observations

The "diamond ring" corona, as seen from New York City on January 24, 1925

It was seen in New York City. It was reported that those north of 96th Street in Manhattan saw a total solar eclipse while those south of 96th Street saw a partial eclipse.

Visual and radio observations were conducted by researchers working with Scientific American.

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 24, 1925 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1925 January 24 at 12:41:48.8 UTC
First Umbral External Contact1925 January 24 at 14:01:18.9 UTC
First Central Line1925 January 24 at 14:02:31.1 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact1925 January 24 at 14:03:44.6 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1925 January 24 at 14:45:16.3 UTC
Greatest Duration1925 January 24 at 14:53:02.2 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1925 January 24 at 14:54:03.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1925 January 24 at 15:06:52.3 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact1925 January 24 at 15:44:13.9 UTC
Last Central Line1925 January 24 at 15:45:26.2 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact1925 January 24 at 15:46:37.2 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1925 January 24 at 17:06:14.1 UTC
January 24, 1925 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude1.03044
Eclipse Obscuration1.06180
Gamma0.86613
Sun Right Ascension20h25m51.5s
Sun Declination-19°13'44.3"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'14.7"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension20h25m20.3s
Moon Declination-18°21'36.7"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'36.2"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax1°00'56.2"
ΔT23.6 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.

Eclipse season of January–February 1925
January 24 Descending node (new moon)February 8 Ascending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 120Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 132

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1925

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 120

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1924–1928

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 March 5, 1924 and August 30, 1924 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on May 19, 1928 and November 12, 1928 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1924 to 1928
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
115July 31, 1924 Partial−1.4459120January 24, 1925 Total0.8661
125July 20, 1925 Annular−0.7193130 Totality in Sumatra, IndonesiaJanuary 14, 1926 Total0.1973
135July 9, 1926 Annular0.0538140January 3, 1927 Annular−0.4956
145June 29, 1927 Total0.8163150December 24, 1927 Partial−1.2416
155June 17, 1928 Partial1.5107

Saros 120

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 120, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 27, 933 AD. It contains annular eclipses from August 11, 1059 through April 26, 1492; hybrid eclipses from May 8, 1510 through June 8, 1564; and total eclipses from June 20, 1582 through March 30, 2033. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 7, 2195. 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 11 at 6 minutes, 24 seconds on September 11, 1113, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 60 at 2 minutes, 50 seconds on March 9, 1997. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 50–71 occur between 1801 and 2195:
505152
November 19, 1816November 30, 1834December 11, 1852
535455
December 22, 1870January 1, 1889January 14, 1907
565758
January 24, 1925February 4, 1943February 15, 1961
596061
February 26, 1979March 9, 1997March 20, 2015
626364
March 30, 2033April 11, 2051April 21, 2069
656667
May 2, 2087May 14, 2105May 25, 2123
686970
June 4, 2141June 16, 2159June 26, 2177
71
July 7, 2195

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.

22 eclipse events between April 8, 1902 and August 31, 1989
April 7–8January 24–25November 12August 31–September 1June 19–20
108110112114116
April 8, 1902August 31, 1913June 19, 1917
118120122124126
April 8, 1921January 24, 1925November 12, 1928August 31, 1932June 19, 1936
128130132134136
April 7, 1940January 25, 1944November 12, 1947September 1, 1951June 20, 1955
138140142144146
April 8, 1959January 25, 1963November 12, 1966August 31, 1970June 20, 1974
148150152154
April 7, 1978January 25, 1982November 12, 1985August 31, 1989

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 2200
January 1, 1805 (Saros 109)October 31, 1826 (Saros 111)August 28, 1848 (Saros 113)
July 29, 1859 (Saros 114)June 28, 1870 (Saros 115)May 27, 1881 (Saros 116)April 26, 1892 (Saros 117)March 29, 1903 (Saros 118)
February 25, 1914 (Saros 119)January 24, 1925 (Saros 120)December 25, 1935 (Saros 121)November 23, 1946 (Saros 122)October 23, 1957 (Saros 123)
September 22, 1968 (Saros 124)August 22, 1979 (Saros 125)July 22, 1990 (Saros 126)June 21, 2001 (Saros 127)May 20, 2012 (Saros 128)
April 20, 2023 (Saros 129)March 20, 2034 (Saros 130)February 16, 2045 (Saros 131)January 16, 2056 (Saros 132)December 17, 2066 (Saros 133)
November 15, 2077 (Saros 134)October 14, 2088 (Saros 135)September 14, 2099 (Saros 136)August 15, 2110 (Saros 137)July 14, 2121 (Saros 138)
June 13, 2132 (Saros 139)May 14, 2143 (Saros 140)April 12, 2154 (Saros 141)March 12, 2165 (Saros 142)February 10, 2176 (Saros 143)
January 9, 2187 (Saros 144)December 9, 2197 (Saros 145)

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 14, 1809 (Saros 116)March 25, 1838 (Saros 117)March 6, 1867 (Saros 118)
February 13, 1896 (Saros 119)January 24, 1925 (Saros 120)January 5, 1954 (Saros 121)
December 15, 1982 (Saros 122)November 25, 2011 (Saros 123)November 4, 2040 (Saros 124)
October 15, 2069 (Saros 125)September 25, 2098 (Saros 126)September 6, 2127 (Saros 127)
August 16, 2156 (Saros 128)July 26, 2185 (Saros 129)

See also

Notes

Further reading

  • Sisson, Patrick (August 14, 2017). . Curbed NY. Archived from on August 14, 2017.

External links