An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Monday, January 3 and Tuesday, January 4, 1927, with a magnitude of 0.9995. 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 8.6 days after apogee (on December 26, 1926, at 7:10 UTC) and 3.3 days before perigee (on January 7, 1927, at 3:00 UTC).

Annularity was visible from New Zealand on January 4 (Tuesday), and Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil on January 3 (Monday). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Oceania, Antarctica, and South America.

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 3, 1927 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1927 January 3 at 17:44:12.4 UTC
First Umbral External Contact1927 January 3 at 18:48:36.9 UTC
First Central Line1927 January 3 at 18:49:09.7 UTC
Greatest Duration1927 January 3 at 18:49:09.7 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact1927 January 3 at 18:49:42.5 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1927 January 3 at 20:22:53.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1927 January 3 at 20:23:09.7 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1927 January 3 at 20:28:11.0 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact1927 January 3 at 21:56:05.6 UTC
Last Central Line1927 January 3 at 21:56:35.8 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact1927 January 3 at 21:57:05.9 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1927 January 3 at 23:01:27.9 UTC
January 3, 1927 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.99947
Eclipse Obscuration0.99894
Gamma−0.49559
Sun Right Ascension18h54m14.6s
Sun Declination-22°51'45.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'15.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension18h54m13.9s
Moon Declination-23°20'50.4"
Moon Semi-Diameter16'01.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°58'49.4"
ΔT24.5 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 December 1926–January 1927
December 19 Ascending node (full moon)January 3 Descending node (new moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 114Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 140

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1927

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 140

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 140

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 140, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on April 16, 1512. It contains total eclipses from July 21, 1656 through November 9, 1836; hybrid eclipses from November 20, 1854 through December 23, 1908; and annular eclipses from January 3, 1927 through December 7, 2485. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 1, 2774. 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 11 at 4 minutes, 10 seconds on August 12, 1692, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 53 at 7 minutes, 35 seconds on November 15, 2449. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 18–39 occur between 1801 and 2200:
181920
October 29, 1818November 9, 1836November 20, 1854
212223
November 30, 1872December 12, 1890December 23, 1908
242526
January 3, 1927January 14, 1945January 25, 1963
272829
February 4, 1981February 16, 1999February 26, 2017
303132
March 9, 2035March 20, 2053March 31, 2071
333435
April 10, 2089April 23, 2107May 3, 2125
363738
May 14, 2143May 25, 2161June 5, 2179
39
June 15, 2197

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 March 16, 1866 and August 9, 1953
March 16–17January 1–3October 20–22August 9–10May 27–29
108110112114116
March 16, 1866August 9, 1877May 27, 1881
118120122124126
March 16, 1885January 1, 1889October 20, 1892August 9, 1896May 28, 1900
128130132134136
March 17, 1904January 3, 1908October 22, 1911August 10, 1915May 29, 1919
138140142144146
March 17, 1923January 3, 1927October 21, 1930August 10, 1934May 29, 1938
148150152154
March 16, 1942January 3, 1946October 21, 1949August 9, 1953

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.

The partial solar eclipses on December 18, 2188 (part of Saros 164) and November 18, 2199 (part of Saros 165) are also a part of this series but are not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2134
December 10, 1806 (Saros 129)November 9, 1817 (Saros 130)October 9, 1828 (Saros 131)September 7, 1839 (Saros 132)August 7, 1850 (Saros 133)
July 8, 1861 (Saros 134)June 6, 1872 (Saros 135)May 6, 1883 (Saros 136)April 6, 1894 (Saros 137)March 6, 1905 (Saros 138)
February 3, 1916 (Saros 139)January 3, 1927 (Saros 140)December 2, 1937 (Saros 141)November 1, 1948 (Saros 142)October 2, 1959 (Saros 143)
August 31, 1970 (Saros 144)July 31, 1981 (Saros 145)June 30, 1992 (Saros 146)May 31, 2003 (Saros 147)April 29, 2014 (Saros 148)
March 29, 2025 (Saros 149)February 27, 2036 (Saros 150)January 26, 2047 (Saros 151)December 26, 2057 (Saros 152)November 24, 2068 (Saros 153)
October 24, 2079 (Saros 154)September 23, 2090 (Saros 155)August 24, 2101 (Saros 156)July 23, 2112 (Saros 157)June 23, 2123 (Saros 158)
May 23, 2134 (Saros 159)

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
March 24, 1811 (Saros 136)March 4, 1840 (Saros 137)February 11, 1869 (Saros 138)
January 22, 1898 (Saros 139)January 3, 1927 (Saros 140)December 14, 1955 (Saros 141)
November 22, 1984 (Saros 142)November 3, 2013 (Saros 143)October 14, 2042 (Saros 144)
September 23, 2071 (Saros 145)September 4, 2100 (Saros 146)August 15, 2129 (Saros 147)
July 25, 2158 (Saros 148)July 6, 2187 (Saros 149)

Notes