An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Saturday, December 2 and Sunday, December 3, 1899,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9836. 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 about 4.25 days before perigee (on December 7, 1899, at 6:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
The path of annularity was visible from parts of Antarctica. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of southern Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
Description
The eclipse took place in much of the southeast part of the Indian Ocean and included some of the islands and all of Antarctica (many areas had a 24-hour daylight at the time) except for the South Orkney Islands, it also included most of the south of Western Australia, a part of the southwesternmost state of Victoria and much of Tasmania except for the northeasternmost part, most of New Zealand's South Island, particularly the southern part and a part of the southern portion of the Pacific Ocean. The rim of the eclipse included the area hundreds of miles (or kilometers) from Cocos Islands and the southernmost of South America, it also included the southernmost portion of the Atlantic Ocean.
The umbral portion crossed the middle of Antarctica which was close to the South Pole and the south part of the middle of the continent's peninsula, it lasted over a minute.
The eclipse began at sunrise thousands of miles (or kilometers) offshore from Africa and west of Australia and ended at sunset at Patagonia and thousands of kilometers offshore from Chile and Peru. The greatest eclipse was in the Antarctic Peninsula north of the South Pole at 86.6 S and 121.5 E at 0:57 UTC (8:57 AM local time).[3]
It was around 65% obscured in Antarctica where the Indian and the Pacific Oceans separates.
As the moon moved towards the left on Earth in Australia and New Zealand, at the other side of Northern Antarctica that includes the 70th meridian, it was seen as it was moved towards the bottom right, in areas within the Prime Meridian, it moved right, at the peninsula, it then moved top right as the axis spun at around the 68th parallel south.
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.[4]
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.
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.[5]
The solar eclipses on January 22, 1898 (total) and July 18, 1898 (annular) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on April 8, 1902 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 121, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on April 25, 944 AD. It contains total eclipses from July 10, 1070 through October 9, 1809; hybrid eclipses on October 20, 1827 and October 30, 1845; and annular eclipses from November 11, 1863 through February 28, 2044. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 7, 2206. 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 39 at 6 minutes, 20 seconds on June 21, 1629, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 62 at 2 minutes, 27 seconds on February 28, 2044. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.[6]
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.
22 eclipse events between December 2, 1880 and July 9, 1964
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.
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.