| Annular eclipse | |
 Map | |
| Gamma | 0.9388 |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 0.9731 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 109 s (1 min 49 s) |
| Coordinates | 73°06′N129°06′W / 73.1°N 129.1°W /73.1; -129.1 |
| Max. width of band | 285 km (177 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 16:45:53 |
| References | |
| Saros | 118 (64 of 72) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9373 |
An annularsolar eclipse occurred at the Moon'sdescending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 19, 1939,[1] with amagnitude of 0.9731. Asolar eclipse occurs when theMoon passes betweenEarth and theSun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon'sapparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like anannulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 6.3 days afterapogee (on April 13, 1939, at 9:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
This annular eclipse is notable in that the path of annularity passed over theNorth Pole. Land covered in the path include part ofAlaska,Canada, andFranz Josef Land,Ushakov Island andVize Island in theSoviet Union (today'sRussia). A partial eclipse was visible for parts ofNorth America andWestern Europe. This was umbral eclipse number 56 out of 57 inSolar Saros 118, this is the last central solar eclipse, and the penultimate umbral eclipse, with the last (ultimate) one in1957.
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.[3]
| Event | Time (UTC) |
|---|---|
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1939 April 19 at 14:26:23.5 UTC |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1939 April 19 at 16:04:52.6 UTC |
| First Central Line | 1939 April 19 at 16:07:51.0 UTC |
| Greatest Duration | 1939 April 19 at 16:07:51.0 UTC |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1939 April 19 at 16:11:02.6 UTC |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1939 April 19 at 16:35:25.0 UTC |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1939 April 19 at 16:45:53.4 UTC |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1939 April 19 at 17:14:29.6 UTC |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1939 April 19 at 17:20:26.2 UTC |
| Last Central Line | 1939 April 19 at 17:23:34.9 UTC |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1939 April 19 at 17:26:30.4 UTC |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1939 April 19 at 19:05:03.9 UTC |
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.97308 |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.94689 |
| Gamma | 0.93880 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 01h46m48.0s |
| Sun Declination | +11°01'35.5" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'55.2" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 01h45m51.4s |
| Moon Declination | +11°52'43.4" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'25.0" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°56'34.8" |
| ΔT | 24.1 s |
This eclipse is part of aneclipse 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 afortnight.
| April 19 Descending node (new moon) | May 3 Ascending node (full moon) |
|---|---|
|  |
| Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 118 | Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 130 |
This eclipse is a member of asemester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternatingnodes of the Moon's orbit.[4]
The partial solar eclipse onAugust 12, 1942 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1939 to 1942 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 118 | April 19, 1939 Annular | 0.9388 | 123 | October 12, 1939 Total | −0.9737 | |
| 128 | April 7, 1940 Annular | 0.219 | 133 | October 1, 1940 Total | −0.2573 | |
| 138 | March 27, 1941 Annular | −0.5025 | 143 | September 21, 1941 Total | 0.4649 | |
| 148 | March 16, 1942 Partial | −1.1908 | 153 | September 10, 1942 Partial | 1.2571 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 118, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 24, 803 AD. It contains total eclipses from August 19, 947 AD through October 25, 1650; hybrid eclipses on November 4, 1668 and November 15, 1686; and annular eclipses from November 27, 1704 throughApril 30, 1957. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse onJuly 15, 2083. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is oneexeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 34 at 6 minutes, 59 seconds on May 16, 1398, and the longest duration of annularity was produced by member 59 at 1 minutes, 58 seconds on February 23, 1849. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit.[5]
| Series members 57–72 occur between 1801 and 2083: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 57 | 58 | 59 |
 February 1, 1813 |  February 12, 1831 |  February 23, 1849 |
| 60 | 61 | 62 |
 March 6, 1867 |  March 16, 1885 |  March 29, 1903 |
| 63 | 64 | 65 |
 April 8, 1921 | April 19, 1939 |  April 30, 1957 |
| 66 | 67 | 68 |
 May 11, 1975 |  May 21, 1993 |  June 1, 2011 |
| 69 | 70 | 71 |
 June 12, 2029 |  June 23, 2047 |  July 3, 2065 |
| 72 | ||
 July 15, 2083 | ||
Themetonic 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 descending node.
| 22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 11–12 | June 30–July 1 | April 17–19 | February 4–5 | November 22–23 |
| 114 | 116 | 118 | 120 | 122 |
 September 12, 1931 |  June 30, 1935 | April 19, 1939 |  February 4, 1943 |  November 23, 1946 |
| 124 | 126 | 128 | 130 | 132 |
 September 12, 1950 |  June 30, 1954 |  April 19, 1958 |  February 5, 1962 |  November 23, 1965 |
| 134 | 136 | 138 | 140 | 142 |
 September 11, 1969 |  June 30, 1973 |  April 18, 1977 |  February 4, 1981 |  November 22, 1984 |
| 144 | 146 | 148 | 150 | 152 |
 September 11, 1988 |  June 30, 1992 |  April 17, 1996 |  February 5, 2000 |  November 23, 2003 |
| 154 | 156 | |||
 September 11, 2007 |  July 1, 2011 | |||
This eclipse is a part of atritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic 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 1801 and 2200 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 March 25, 1819 (Saros 107) |  February 23, 1830 (Saros 108) |  January 22, 1841 (Saros 109) |  November 21, 1862 (Saros 111) | |
 August 20, 1895 (Saros 114) |  July 21, 1906 (Saros 115) |  June 19, 1917 (Saros 116) | ||
 May 19, 1928 (Saros 117) | April 19, 1939 (Saros 118) |  March 18, 1950 (Saros 119) |  February 15, 1961 (Saros 120) |  January 16, 1972 (Saros 121) |
 December 15, 1982 (Saros 122) |  November 13, 1993 (Saros 123) |  October 14, 2004 (Saros 124) |  September 13, 2015 (Saros 125) |  August 12, 2026 (Saros 126) |
 July 13, 2037 (Saros 127) |  June 11, 2048 (Saros 128) |  May 11, 2059 (Saros 129) |  April 11, 2070 (Saros 130) |  March 10, 2081 (Saros 131) |
 February 7, 2092 (Saros 132) |  January 8, 2103 (Saros 133) |  December 8, 2113 (Saros 134) |  November 6, 2124 (Saros 135) |  October 7, 2135 (Saros 136) |
 September 6, 2146 (Saros 137) |  August 5, 2157 (Saros 138) |  July 5, 2168 (Saros 139) |  June 5, 2179 (Saros 140) |  May 4, 2190 (Saros 141) |
This eclipse is a part of the long periodinex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with theanomalistic 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.
| Series members between 1801 and 2200 | ||
|---|---|---|
 July 8, 1823 (Saros 114) |  June 17, 1852 (Saros 115) |  May 27, 1881 (Saros 116) |
 May 9, 1910 (Saros 117) | April 19, 1939 (Saros 118) |  March 28, 1968 (Saros 119) |
 March 9, 1997 (Saros 120) |  February 17, 2026 (Saros 121) |  January 27, 2055 (Saros 122) |
 January 7, 2084 (Saros 123) |  December 19, 2112 (Saros 124) |  November 28, 2141 (Saros 125) |
 November 8, 2170 (Saros 126) |  October 19, 2199 (Saros 127) | |
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