Solar eclipse of September 1, 1951

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, September 1, 1951, with a magnitude of 0.9747. 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. Occurring 5.4 days after apogee (on August 27, 1951, at 3:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Annularity was visible from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia in the United States, Spanish Sahara (today's West Sahara), French West Africa (the parts now belonging to Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast), British Gold Coast (today's Ghana), southern tip of French Equatorial Africa (the part now belonging to R. Congo), Belgian Congo (today's DR Congo), Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia), Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), Nyasaland (today's Malawi), and French Madagascar (the part now belonging to Madagascar). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of eastern North America, the Caribbean, northern South America, Europe, and Africa.

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.

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.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1951

• A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 21.
• An annular solar eclipse on March 7.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 23.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 17.
• An annular solar eclipse on September 1.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 15.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 12, 1947
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 20, 1955

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 20, 1944
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 12, 1958

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 26, 1942
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 5, 1960

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 1, 1940
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962

Solar Saros 134

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 21, 1933
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 11, 1969

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 10, 1980

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 30, 1864
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 2, 2038

Solar eclipses of 1950–1953

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 July 11, 1953 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 134

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 22, 1248. It contains total eclipses from October 9, 1428 through December 24, 1554; hybrid eclipses from January 3, 1573 through June 27, 1843; and annular eclipses from July 8, 1861 through May 21, 2384. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. 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 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 52 at 10 minutes, 55 seconds on January 10, 2168. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

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.

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.

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.

Notes

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC

Further reading

• Wells, H. W. (June 1952). . Journal of Geophysical Research. 57 (2): 291–304. doi:.
• Wells, H. (August 1952). . Transactions of the IRE Professional Group on Antennas and Propagation. PGAP-3: 210–210. doi:. ISSN .