Solar eclipse of September 1, 1951

16°30′N 8°30′W / 16.5°N 8.5°W / 16.5; -8.5Max. width of band91 km (57 mi)Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse12:51:51ReferencesSaros134 (40 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000)9401

An annular solar eclipse occurred on Saturday, September 1, 1951. 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 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 (today's Madagascar).

Related eclipses

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.^[1]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1950 to 1953
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
119	1950 March 18 Annular (non-central)		124	1950 September 12 Total
129	1951 March 7 Annular		134	1951 September 1 Annular
139	1952 February 25 Total		144	1952 August 20 Annular
149	1953 February 14 Partial		154	1953 August 9 Partial
Solar eclipse of July 11, 1953 belongs to the next lunar year set

Saros 134

It is a part of Saros cycle 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, 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 and 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 71 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. The longest duration of totality was 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node.^[2]

Series members 32–48 occur between 1801 and 2100:
32	33	34
June 6, 1807	June 16, 1825	June 27, 1843
35	36	37
July 8, 1861	July 19, 1879	July 29, 1897
38	39	40
August 10, 1915	August 21, 1933	September 1, 1951
41	42	43
September 11, 1969	September 23, 1987	October 3, 2005
44	45	46
October 14, 2023	October 25, 2041	November 5, 2059
47	48
November 15, 2077	November 27, 2095

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).

22 eclipse events, progressing from north to south between April 8, 1902 and August 31, 1989:
April 7–8	January 24–25	November 12	August 31-September 1	June 19–20
108			114	116
April 8, 1902			August 31, 1913	June 19, 1917
118	120	122	124	126
April 8, 1921	January 24, 1925	November 12, 1928	August 31, 1932	June 19, 1936
128	130	132	134	136
April 7, 1940	January 25, 1944	November 12, 1947	September 1, 1951	June 20, 1955
138	140	142	144	146
April 8, 1959	January 25, 1963	November 12, 1966	August 31, 1970	June 20, 1974
148	150	152	154
April 7, 1978	January 25, 1982	November 12, 1985	August 31, 1989

Notes

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements