A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Monday, March 16 and Tuesday, March 17, 1942, with a magnitude of 0.6393. 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.

A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Antarctica and southern 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.

March 16, 1942 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1942 March 16 at 21:44:48.6 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1942 March 16 at 22:54:14.8 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1942 March 16 at 23:37:06.8 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1942 March 16 at 23:50:18.2 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1942 March 17 at 01:29:50.5 UTC
March 16, 1942 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.63936
Eclipse Obscuration0.54379
Gamma−1.19082
Sun Right Ascension23h44m24.0s
Sun Declination-01°41'22.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'04.3"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension23h45m46.3s
Moon Declination-02°45'29.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'26.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°56'41.2"
ΔT25.4 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 March 1942
March 3 Ascending node (full moon)March 16 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 122Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 148

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1942

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 148

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1939–1942

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 August 12, 1942 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1939 to 1942
Descending nodeAscending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
118April 19, 1939 Annular0.9388123October 12, 1939 Total−0.9737
128April 7, 1940 Annular0.219133October 1, 1940 Total−0.2573
138March 27, 1941 Annular−0.5025143September 21, 1941 Total0.4649
148March 16, 1942 Partial−1.1908153September 10, 1942 Partial1.2571

Saros 148

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 148, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 75 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on September 21, 1653. It contains annular eclipses on April 29, 2014 and May 9, 2032; a hybrid eclipse on May 20, 2050; and total eclipses from May 31, 2068 through August 3, 2771. The series ends at member 75 as a partial eclipse on December 12, 2987. 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 will be produced by member 22 at 22 seconds (by default) on May 9, 2032, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 54 at 5 minutes, 23 seconds on April 26, 2609. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 10–31 occur between 1801 and 2200:
101112
December 30, 1815January 9, 1834January 21, 1852
131415
January 31, 1870February 11, 1888February 23, 1906
161718
March 5, 1924March 16, 1942March 27, 1960
192021
April 7, 1978April 17, 1996April 29, 2014
222324
May 9, 2032May 20, 2050May 31, 2068
252627
June 11, 2086June 22, 2104July 4, 2122
282930
July 14, 2140July 25, 2158August 4, 2176
31
August 16, 2194

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 eclipse on November 4, 2116 (part of Saros 164) is also a part of this series but is not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2029
March 24, 1811 (Saros 136)February 21, 1822 (Saros 137)January 20, 1833 (Saros 138)December 21, 1843 (Saros 139)November 20, 1854 (Saros 140)
October 19, 1865 (Saros 141)September 17, 1876 (Saros 142)August 19, 1887 (Saros 143)July 18, 1898 (Saros 144)June 17, 1909 (Saros 145)
May 18, 1920 (Saros 146)April 18, 1931 (Saros 147)March 16, 1942 (Saros 148)February 14, 1953 (Saros 149)January 14, 1964 (Saros 150)
December 13, 1974 (Saros 151)November 12, 1985 (Saros 152)October 12, 1996 (Saros 153)September 11, 2007 (Saros 154)August 11, 2018 (Saros 155)
July 11, 2029 (Saros 156)

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
June 5, 1826 (Saros 144)May 16, 1855 (Saros 145)April 25, 1884 (Saros 146)
April 6, 1913 (Saros 147)March 16, 1942 (Saros 148)February 25, 1971 (Saros 149)
February 5, 2000 (Saros 150)January 14, 2029 (Saros 151)December 26, 2057 (Saros 152)
December 6, 2086 (Saros 153)November 16, 2115 (Saros 154)October 26, 2144 (Saros 155)
October 7, 2173 (Saros 156)

External links