| Annular eclipse | |
 Map | |
| Gamma | −0.4546 |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 0.9401 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 446 s (7 min 26 s) |
| Coordinates | 19°06′S137°36′E / 19.1°S 137.6°E /-19.1; 137.6 |
| Max. width of band | 247 km (153 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 3:24:08 |
| References | |
| Saros | 138 (28 of 70) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9418 |
An annularsolar eclipse occurred at the Moon'sdescending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 8, 1959,[1] with amagnitude of 0.9401. 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 2.9 days afterapogee (on April 10, 1959, at 23:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
Annularity was visible fromAustralia, southeastern tip ofMilne Bay Province in theTerritory of Papua New Guinea (today'sPapua New Guinea),British Solomon Islands (today'sSolomon Islands),Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the part now belonging toTuvalu),Tokelau, andSwains Island inAmerican Samoa. A partial eclipse was visible for parts ofAustralia,Antarctica,Southeast Asia, andOceania.
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 | 1959 April 8 at 00:27:28.0 UTC |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1959 April 8 at 01:36:33.3 UTC |
| First Central Line | 1959 April 8 at 01:39:23.2 UTC |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1959 April 8 at 01:42:14.0 UTC |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1959 April 8 at 03:08:03.5 UTC |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1959 April 8 at 03:24:08.2 UTC |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1959 April 8 at 03:29:32.4 UTC |
| Greatest Duration | 1959 April 8 at 03:30:28.4 UTC |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1959 April 8 at 05:06:13.3 UTC |
| Last Central Line | 1959 April 8 at 05:09:05.4 UTC |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1959 April 8 at 05:11:56.5 UTC |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1959 April 8 at 06:20:59.2 UTC |
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.94012 |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.88382 |
| Gamma | −0.45463 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 01h04m44.7s |
| Sun Declination | +06°53'31.5" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'58.4" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 01h05m13.2s |
| Moon Declination | +06°29'54.6" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'49.0" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°54'22.5" |
| ΔT | 32.8 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.
| March 24 Ascending node (full moon) | April 8 Descending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
 | |
| Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 112 | Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 138 |
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]
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1957 to 1960 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 118 | April 30, 1957 Annular (non-central) | 0.9992 | 123 | October 23, 1957 Total (non-central) | 1.0022 | |
| 128 | April 19, 1958 Annular | 0.275 | 133 | October 12, 1958 Total | −0.2951 | |
| 138 | April 8, 1959 Annular | −0.4546 | 143 | October 2, 1959 Total | 0.4207 | |
| 148 | March 27, 1960 Partial | −1.1537 | 153 | September 20, 1960 Partial | 1.2057 | |
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 138, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 6, 1472. It contains annular eclipses from August 31, 1598 through February 18, 2482; a hybrid eclipse on March 1, 2500; and total eclipses from March 12, 2518 through April 3, 2554. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on July 11, 2716. 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 annularity was produced by member 23 at 8 minutes, 2 seconds on February 11, 1869, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 61 at 56 seconds on April 3, 2554. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sdescending node of orbit.[5]
| Series members 20–41 occur between 1801 and 2200: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 21 | 22 |
 January 10, 1815 |  January 20, 1833 |  February 1, 1851 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 |
 February 11, 1869 |  February 22, 1887 |  March 6, 1905 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 |
 March 17, 1923 |  March 27, 1941 | April 8, 1959 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
 April 18, 1977 |  April 29, 1995 |  May 10, 2013 |
| 32 | 33 | 34 |
 May 21, 2031 |  May 31, 2049 |  June 11, 2067 |
| 35 | 36 | 37 |
 June 22, 2085 |  July 4, 2103 |  July 14, 2121 |
| 38 | 39 | 40 |
 July 25, 2139 |  August 5, 2157 |  August 16, 2175 |
| 41 | ||
 August 26, 2193 | ||
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 April 8, 1902 and August 31, 1989 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7–8 | January 24–25 | November 12 | August 31–September 1 | June 19–20 |
| 108 | 110 | 112 | 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 | |
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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 June 16, 1806 (Saros 124) |  May 16, 1817 (Saros 125) |  April 14, 1828 (Saros 126) |  March 15, 1839 (Saros 127) |  February 12, 1850 (Saros 128) |
 January 11, 1861 (Saros 129) |  December 12, 1871 (Saros 130) |  November 10, 1882 (Saros 131) |  October 9, 1893 (Saros 132) |  September 9, 1904 (Saros 133) |
 August 10, 1915 (Saros 134) |  July 9, 1926 (Saros 135) |  June 8, 1937 (Saros 136) |  May 9, 1948 (Saros 137) | April 8, 1959 (Saros 138) |
 March 7, 1970 (Saros 139) |  February 4, 1981 (Saros 140) |  January 4, 1992 (Saros 141) |  December 4, 2002 (Saros 142) |  November 3, 2013 (Saros 143) |
 October 2, 2024 (Saros 144) |  September 2, 2035 (Saros 145) |  August 2, 2046 (Saros 146) |  July 1, 2057 (Saros 147) |  May 31, 2068 (Saros 148) |
 May 1, 2079 (Saros 149) |  March 31, 2090 (Saros 150) |  February 28, 2101 (Saros 151) |  January 29, 2112 (Saros 152) |  December 28, 2122 (Saros 153) |
 November 26, 2133 (Saros 154) |  October 26, 2144 (Saros 155) |  September 26, 2155 (Saros 156) |  August 25, 2166 (Saros 157) |  July 25, 2177 (Saros 158) |
 June 24, 2188 (Saros 159) |  May 24, 2199 (Saros 160) | |||
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 17, 1814 (Saros 133) |  June 27, 1843 (Saros 134) |  June 6, 1872 (Saros 135) |
 May 18, 1901 (Saros 136) |  April 28, 1930 (Saros 137) | April 8, 1959 (Saros 138) |
 March 18, 1988 (Saros 139) |  February 26, 2017 (Saros 140) |  February 5, 2046 (Saros 141) |
 January 16, 2075 (Saros 142) |  December 29, 2103 (Saros 143) |  December 7, 2132 (Saros 144) |
 November 17, 2161 (Saros 145) |  October 29, 2190 (Saros 146) | |
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