Solar eclipse of March 17, 1904
PreviousSolar eclipse of September 21, 1903
NextSolar eclipse of September 9, 1904

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Thursday, March 17, 1904,[1][2][3][4][5] with a magnitude of 0.9367. 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 3 days after apogee (on March 14, 1904, at 6:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[6]

The path of annularity covered southern German East Africa (now southern Tanzania), northeastern tip of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), northern Grande Comore Island in French Comoros (now Comoros), southern British Seychelles (now Seychelles), Archipelago of Agaléga which is located far away from the main island of British Mauritius (now Mauritius), most of the British Indian Ocean Territory (excluding the southern part of Diego Garcia), northwestern Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), southern Siam (now renamed as Thailand), French Indochina (the part now belonging to Cambodia, the southern tip of Laos and southern Vietnam, including the major city Phnom Penh, now capital of Cambodia), all of the Paracel Islands, the northern tip of the American Philippines (now Philippines) and Japanese remote islands of Iwo Jima, South Iwo Jima and Minamitorishima.

In addition, a partial solar eclipse was seen within a much larger area, including the eastern half of Africa, southern West Asia, southern Afghanistan, South Asia except the northernmost tip of British Raj (now the northernmost tip of Pakistan), most of China except the northwest border, Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia, the extreme northern coast of Australia, northwestern Melanesia, central and western Micronesia, and southeastern Russian Empire.

Observations

N. Donitch of the Royal Russian Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of today's Russian Academy of Sciences) traveled to Phnom Penh (now capital of Cambodia) via Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) in French Indochina and made observations there. The weather was clear on the eclipse day, with only some fog in the morning. Donitch used a spectrometer and recorded changes in the temperature in about 2.5 hours, which dropped for about 3 °C.[7]

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.[8]

March 17, 1904 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact1904 March 17 at 02:36:24.1 UTC
First Umbral External Contact1904 March 17 at 03:41:08.2 UTC
First Central Line1904 March 17 at 03:43:53.3 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact1904 March 17 at 03:46:38.6 UTC
First Penumbral Internal Contact1904 March 17 at 04:52:21.2 UTC
Greatest Duration1904 March 17 at 05:37:38.0 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1904 March 17 at 05:39:11.3 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1904 March 17 at 05:40:44.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1904 March 17 at 05:45:36.1 UTC
Last Penumbral Internal Contact1904 March 17 at 06:28:59.4 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact1904 March 17 at 07:34:47.3 UTC
Last Central Line1904 March 17 at 07:37:30.8 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact1904 March 17 at 07:40:14.2 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1904 March 17 at 08:44:57.8 UTC
March 17, 1904 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.93675
Eclipse Obscuration0.87751
Gamma0.12993
Sun Right Ascension23h46m07.3s
Sun Declination-01°30'13.7"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'04.1"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.8"
Moon Right Ascension23h45m58.8s
Moon Declination-01°23'30.5"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'49.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°54'24.9"
ΔT2.9 s

Eclipse season

See also: Eclipse cycle

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.

Eclipse season of March 1904
March 2
Ascending node (full moon)		March 17
Descending node (new moon)		March 31
Ascending node (full moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 102		Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 128		Penumbral lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 140

Eclipses in 1904

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 128

Inex

Triad

Notes

  1. ^ "March 17, 1904 Total Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  2. ^ "THIS ECLIPSE SKIPS AMERICUS". Americus Times-Recorder. 1904-03-17. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-10-27. – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "An eclipse of the sun.". The Kansas City Star. 1904-03-17. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-10-27. – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "ERIN GO BRAUGH.". The Daily Journal. 1904-03-17. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-10-27. – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Sun to be eclipsed today.". The Brunswick News. 1904-03-17. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-10-27. – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  7. ^ Donitch, N. (1905). "On the observation of the Annular Solar eclipse in Indo-China on 16 march 1904". Izv. Russ.Astron.Ob-va. ' (8/9): 276–279. Archived 29 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ "Annular Solar Eclipse of 1904 Mar 17". EclipseWise.com. Retrieved 30 July 2024.

References