A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Monday, November 21 and Tuesday, November 22, 1938, with a magnitude of 0.7781. 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 Northeast Asia, Hawaii, and western North 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.

November 21, 1938 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1938 November 21 at 21:45:25.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1938 November 21 at 23:36:56.9 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1938 November 21 at 23:52:25.0 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1938 November 22 at 00:05:04.6 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1938 November 22 at 01:59:37.3 UTC
November 21, 1938 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.77807
Eclipse Obscuration0.70163
Gamma1.10769
Sun Right Ascension15h47m12.0s
Sun Declination-19°56'42.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'11.6"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension15h47m43.3s
Moon Declination-18°55'45.4"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'08.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°55'34.7"
ΔT24.0 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 November 1938
November 7 Descending node (full moon)November 21 Ascending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 125Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 151

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1938

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 151

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1935–1938

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 February 3, 1935 and July 30, 1935 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1935 to 1938
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
111January 5, 1935 Partial−1.5381116June 30, 1935 Partial1.3623
121December 25, 1935 Annular−0.9228126June 19, 1936 Total0.5389
131December 13, 1936 Annular−0.2493136 Totality in Kanton Island, KiribatiJune 8, 1937 Total−0.2253
141December 2, 1937 Annular0.4389146May 29, 1938 Total−0.9607
151November 21, 1938 Partial1.1077

Saros 151

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 151, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 14, 1776. It contains annular eclipses from February 28, 2101 through April 23, 2191; a hybrid eclipse on May 5, 2209; and total eclipses from May 16, 2227 through July 6, 2912. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on October 1, 3056. 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 19 at 2 minutes, 44 seconds on February 28, 2101, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 60 at 5 minutes, 41 seconds on May 22, 2840. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.

Series members 3–24 occur between 1801 and 2200:
345
September 5, 1812September 17, 1830September 27, 1848
678
October 8, 1866October 19, 1884October 31, 1902
91011
November 10, 1920November 21, 1938December 2, 1956
121314
December 13, 1974December 24, 1992January 4, 2011
151617
January 14, 2029January 26, 2047February 5, 2065
181920
February 16, 2083February 28, 2101March 11, 2119
212223
March 21, 2137April 2, 2155April 12, 2173
24
April 23, 2191

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.

23 eclipse events between February 3, 1859 and June 29, 1946
February 1–3November 21–22September 8–10June 28–29April 16–18
109111113115117
February 3, 1859November 21, 1862June 28, 1870April 16, 1874
119121123125127
February 2, 1878November 21, 1881September 8, 1885June 28, 1889April 16, 1893
129131133135137
February 1, 1897November 22, 1900September 9, 1904June 28, 1908April 17, 1912
139141143145147
February 3, 1916November 22, 1919September 10, 1923June 29, 1927April 18, 1931
149151153155
February 3, 1935November 21, 1938September 10, 1942June 29, 1946

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
February 11, 1823 (Saros 147)January 21, 1852 (Saros 148)December 31, 1880 (Saros 149)
December 12, 1909 (Saros 150)November 21, 1938 (Saros 151)November 2, 1967 (Saros 152)
October 12, 1996 (Saros 153)September 21, 2025 (Saros 154)September 2, 2054 (Saros 155)
August 13, 2083 (Saros 156)July 23, 2112 (Saros 157)July 3, 2141 (Saros 158)
June 14, 2170 (Saros 159)May 24, 2199 (Saros 160)

Notes

External links