Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955

An annular solar eclipse occurred on December 14, 1955. 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. Annularity was visible from French Equatorial Africa (the part now belonging to Chad), Libya, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (the part now belonging to Sudan) including the capital city Khartoum, French Somaliland (today's Djibouti) including the capital Djibouti City, British Somaliland (today's Somaliland) including the capital city Hargeisa, the Trust Territory of Somaliland (today's Somalia), the Maldives, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, Thailand including the capital city Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam and South Vietnam (now belonging to Vietnam), China, British Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islands. It was the third central solar eclipse visible from Bangkok from 1948 to 1958, where it is rare for a large city to witness 4 central solar eclipses in just 9.945 years. This is the 20th member Solar Saros 141, and the last of first set of solar eclipses without a penumbral internal contact (without a penumbra northern limit), the next event is the 1973 Dec 24 event, which is the first of 19 solar eclipses with a penumbral internal contact (has penumbral northern and southern limits) until 2298 Jul 09.

Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma0.4266
Magnitude0.9176
Maximum eclipse
Duration729 sec (12 m 9 s)
Coordinates2.1°N 72.2°E / 2.1; 72.2
Max. width of band346 km (215 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse7:02:25
References
Saros141 (20 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)9411

Occurring only 1 day before apogee (Apogee on December 15, 1955), the Moon’s apparent diameter was smaller.

The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse (closest to but slightly shorter than the longest duration) was 12 minutes, 9.17 seconds in the Indian Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse from December 17, 168 to January 14, 3080. Among all the 23740 solar eclipses from 4000 BC to 6000 AD, 7881 are annular, and only 3 of them are longer than this one.[1]

More details

Eclipse Magnitude: 0.91764

Eclipse Obscuration: 0.84206

Gamma: 0.42658

Saros Series: 141st (20 of 70)

Greatest Eclipse: 14 Dec 1955 07:01:53.7 UTC (07:02:25.1 TD)

Ecliptic Conjunction: 14 Dec 1955 07:07:02.4 UTC (07:07:33.8 TD)

Equatorial Conjunction: 14 Dec 1955 07:03:46.6 UTC (07:04:18.1 TD)

Sun right ascension: 17.38

Moon right ascension: 17.38

Earth's shadow right ascension: 5.38

Sun declination: -23.2

Moon declination: -22.8

Earth's shadow declination: 23.2

Sun diameter: 1949.8 arcseconds

Moon diameter: 1765.0 arcseconds

Path Width at Greatest Eclipse: 345.7 km (214.8 mi)

Path Width at Greatest Duration: 345.8 km (214.9 mi)

Central Duration at Greatest Eclipse: 12 minutes, 9.17 seconds

Central Duration at Greatest Duration: 12 minutes, 9.23 seconds

Extreme duration

With a maximum length of annularity duration of 12 minutes and 9.17 seconds, this is the longest solar eclipse in the millennium, also the longest duration in Saros 141, one of the longest eclipse that ever happened. The annular path begins in northern Africa,then passing Maldives (near the maximum eclipse), then crosses just southern edge of Sri Lanka, then the track continues to some countries in Indochina and the track ends just slightly after the track passes Taiwan.

Solar eclipses of 1953–1956

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.[2]

Note: Partial solar eclipse of February 14, 1953 and August 9, 1953 belong to the last lunar year set.

Saros 141

Solar saros 141, repeating every about 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours, contains 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 19, 1613. It contains 41 annular eclipses from August 4, 1739, to October 14, 2460. There are no total eclipses in this series. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 13, 2857. The longest annular eclipse occurred on December 14, 1955, with maximum duration of annularity at 12 minutes and 9 seconds. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node.[3]

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.

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).

Notes
  1. "Annular Solar Eclipses with Durations Exceeding 11m 00s: -3999 to 6000". NASA Eclipse Web Site.
  2. 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.
  3. Saros Series Catalog of Solar Eclipses NASA Eclipse Web Site.

References
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