Solar eclipse of November 21, 1938

Solar eclipse of November 21, 1938
Map
Type of eclipse
NaturePartial
Gamma1.1077
Magnitude0.7781
Maximum eclipse
Coordinates68°54′N 162°00′W / 68.9°N 162°W / 68.9; -162
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse23:52:25
References
Saros151 (10 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)9372

A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Monday, November 21 and Tuesday, November 22, 1938,[1] 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.[2]

November 21, 1938 Solar Eclipse Times
Event Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact 1938 November 21 at 21:45:25.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction 1938 November 21 at 23:36:56.9 UTC
Greatest Eclipse 1938 November 21 at 23:52:25.0 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction 1938 November 22 at 00:05:04.6 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact 1938 November 22 at 01:59:37.3 UTC
November 21, 1938 Solar Eclipse Parameters
Parameter Value
Eclipse Magnitude 0.77807
Eclipse Obscuration 0.70163
Gamma 1.10769
Sun Right Ascension 15h47m12.0s
Sun Declination -19°56'42.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter 16'11.6"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.9"
Moon Right Ascension 15h47m43.3s
Moon Declination -18°55'45.4"
Moon Semi-Diameter 15'08.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°55'34.7"
ΔT 24.0 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 125
Partial solar eclipse
Solar Saros 151

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.[3]

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 node   Descending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
111 January 5, 1935

Partial
−1.5381 116 June 30, 1935

Partial
1.3623
121 December 25, 1935

Annular
−0.9228 126 June 19, 1936

Total
0.5389
131 December 13, 1936

Annular
−0.2493 136

Totality in Kanton Island,
Kiribati
June 8, 1937

Total
−0.2253
141 December 2, 1937

Annular
0.4389 146 May 29, 1938

Total
−0.9607
151 November 21, 1938

Partial
1.1077

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.[4]

Series members 3–24 occur between 1801 and 2200:
3 4 5

September 5, 1812

September 17, 1830

September 27, 1848
6 7 8

October 8, 1866

October 19, 1884

October 31, 1902
9 10 11

November 10, 1920

November 21, 1938

December 2, 1956
12 13 14

December 13, 1974

December 24, 1992

January 4, 2011
15 16 17

January 14, 2029

January 26, 2047

February 5, 2065
18 19 20

February 16, 2083

February 28, 2101

March 11, 2119
21 22 23

March 21, 2137

April 2, 2155

April 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 1–3 November 21–22 September 8–10 June 28–29 April 16–18
109 111 113 115 117

February 3, 1859

November 21, 1862

June 28, 1870

April 16, 1874
119 121 123 125 127

February 2, 1878

November 21, 1881

September 8, 1885

June 28, 1889

April 16, 1893
129 131 133 135 137

February 1, 1897

November 22, 1900

September 9, 1904

June 28, 1908

April 17, 1912
139 141 143 145 147

February 3, 1916

November 22, 1919

September 10, 1923

June 29, 1927

April 18, 1931
149 151 153 155

February 3, 1935

November 21, 1938

September 10, 1942

June 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

  1. ^ "November 21–22, 1938 Partial Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Partial Solar Eclipse of 1938 Nov 21". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  3. ^ van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  4. ^ "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 151". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References