Solar eclipse of December 2, 1937

4°00′N 167°48′W / 4°N 167.8°W / 4; -167.8Max. width of band344 km (214 mi)Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse23:05:45ReferencesSaros141 (19 of 70)Catalog # (SE5000)9370

An annular solar eclipse occurred on December 2, 1937. 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 Ogasawara, Tokyo and South Seas Mandate (the part now belonging to Marshall Islands) in Japan, and Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the part now belonging to Kiribati).

The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse (closest to but slightly shorter than the longest duration) was 12 minutes, 0.33 seconds in the Pacific Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse since December 25, 1628, but the Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955 lasted longer.^[1]

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 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.^[2]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1935 to 1938
Ascending node			Descending node
111	January 5, 1935 Partial		116	June 30, 1935 Partial
121	December 25, 1935 Annular		126	June 19, 1936 Total
131	December 13, 1936 Annular		136	June 8, 1937 Total
141	December 2, 1937 Annular		146	May 29, 1938 Total
151	November 21, 1938 Partial

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]

Series members 17–36 occur between 1901 and 2259
17	18	19
November 11, 1901	November 22, 1919	December 2, 1937
20	21	22
December 14, 1955	December 24, 1973	January 4, 1992
23	24	25
January 15, 2010	January 26, 2028	February 5, 2046
26	27	28
February 17, 2064	February 27, 2082	March 10, 2100
29	30	31
March 22, 2118	April 1, 2136	April 12, 2154
32	33	34
April 23, 2172	May 4, 2190	May 15, 2208
35	36
May 27, 2226	June 6, 2244

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 1901 and 2100
March 6, 1905 (Saros 138)	February 3, 1916 (Saros 139)	January 3, 1927 (Saros 140)
December 2, 1937 (Saros 141)	November 1, 1948 (Saros 142)	October 2, 1959 (Saros 143)
August 31, 1970 (Saros 144)	July 31, 1981 (Saros 145)	June 30, 1992 (Saros 146)
May 31, 2003 (Saros 147)	April 29, 2014 (Saros 148)	March 29, 2025 (Saros 149)
February 27, 2036 (Saros 150)	January 26, 2047 (Saros 151)	December 26, 2057 (Saros 152)
November 24, 2068 (Saros 153)	October 24, 2079 (Saros 154)	September 23, 2090 (Saros 155)

Notes

References

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

External links