| Annular eclipse | |
 Map | |
| Gamma | 0.4389 |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 0.9184 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 720 s (12 min 0 s) |
| Coordinates | 4°00′N167°48′W / 4°N 167.8°W /4; -167.8 |
| Max. width of band | 344 km (214 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 23:05:45 |
| References | |
| Saros | 141 (19 of 70) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9370 |
An annularsolar eclipse occurred at the Moon'sascending node of orbit between Thursday, December 2 and Friday, December 3, 1937,[1] with amagnitude of 0.9184. 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 18 hours beforeapogee (on December 3, 1937, at 16:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse (closest to but slightly shorter than the longest duration) was 12 minutes, 0.33 seconds in thePacific Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse since December 25, 1628, but theSolar eclipse of December 14, 1955 lasted longer.[3]
Annularity was visible from outlying islands inJapan on December 3, including part ofOgasawara Village andSouth Seas Mandate (the part now belonging toMarshall Islands), and alsoTeraina andTabuaeran in theGilbert and Ellice Islands (the part now belonging toKiribati), a colony of theUnited Kingdom, on December 2. (However, time zone of the Line Islands including Teraina and Tabuaeran was changed from UTC−10 to UTC+14 in 1995. The date would be December 3 for all annular eclipse visible from land if observing the present day's time zone.)
A partial eclipse was visible for parts ofEast Asia, northernOceania,Hawaii, and westernNorth America. Part of these areas are east of the 180th meridian, seeing the eclipse on December 2, and the rest west of the 180th meridian, seeing the eclipse on December 3.
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.[4]
| Event | Time (UTC) |
|---|---|
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1937 December 2 at 20:05:29.6 UTC |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1937 December 2 at 21:14:57.2 UTC |
| First Central Line | 1937 December 2 at 21:18:43.1 UTC |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1937 December 2 at 21:22:30.7 UTC |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1937 December 2 at 23:03:27.6 UTC |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1937 December 2 at 23:05:45.1 UTC |
| Greatest Duration | 1937 December 2 at 23:07:42.3 UTC |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1937 December 2 at 23:11:03.1 UTC |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1937 December 3 at 00:49:00.8 UTC |
| Last Central Line | 1937 December 3 at 00:52:48.8 UTC |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1937 December 3 at 00:56:35.2 UTC |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1937 December 3 at 02:06:02.7 UTC |
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.91842 |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.84349 |
| Gamma | 0.43886 |
| Sun Right Ascension | 16h35m02.2s |
| Sun Declination | -22°00'36.6" |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'13.6" |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" |
| Moon Right Ascension | 16h35m06.6s |
| Moon Declination | -21°37'01.0" |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'42.2" |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°53'57.6" |
| ΔT | 24.0 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.
| November 18 Descending node (full moon) | December 2 Ascending node (new moon) |
|---|---|
 | |
| Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 115 | Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 141 |
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.[5]
The partial solar eclipses onFebruary 3, 1935 andJuly 30, 1935 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1935 to 1938 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 111 | January 5, 1935 Partial | −1.5381 | 116 | June 30, 1935 Partial | 1.3623 | |
| 121 | December 25, 1935 Annular | −0.9228 | 126 | June 19, 1936 Total | 0.5389 | |
| 131 | December 13, 1936 Annular | −0.2493 | 136 Totality inKanton Island, Kiribati | June 8, 1937 Total | −0.2253 | |
| 141 | December 2, 1937 Annular | 0.4389 | 146 | May 29, 1938 Total | −0.9607 | |
| 151 | November 21, 1938 Partial | 1.1077 | ||||
This eclipse is a part ofSaros series 141, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 19, 1613. It contains annular eclipses from August 4, 1739 through October 14, 2640. There are no hybrid or total eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 13, 2857. 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 20 at 12 minutes, 9 seconds onDecember 14, 1955. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’sascending node of orbit.[6]
| Series members 12–33 occur between 1801 and 2200: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12 | 13 | 14 |
 September 17, 1811 |  September 28, 1829 |  October 9, 1847 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 |
 October 19, 1865 |  October 30, 1883 |  November 11, 1901 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 |
 November 22, 1919 | December 2, 1937 |  December 14, 1955 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 |
 December 24, 1973 |  January 4, 1992 |  January 15, 2010 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 |
 January 26, 2028 |  February 5, 2046 |  February 17, 2064 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 |
 February 27, 2082 |  March 10, 2100 |  March 22, 2118 |
| 30 | 31 | 32 |
 April 1, 2136 |  April 12, 2154 |  April 23, 2172 |
| 33 | ||
 May 4, 2190 | ||
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 ascending node.
| 22 eclipse events between December 2, 1880 and July 9, 1964 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2–3 | September 20–21 | July 9–10 | April 26–28 | February 13–14 |
| 111 | 113 | 115 | 117 | 119 |
 December 2, 1880 |  July 9, 1888 |  April 26, 1892 |  February 13, 1896 | |
| 121 | 123 | 125 | 127 | 129 |
 December 3, 1899 |  September 21, 1903 |  July 10, 1907 |  April 28, 1911 |  February 14, 1915 |
| 131 | 133 | 135 | 137 | 139 |
 December 3, 1918 |  September 21, 1922 |  July 9, 1926 |  April 28, 1930 |  February 14, 1934 |
| 141 | 143 | 145 | 147 | 149 |
December 2, 1937 |  September 21, 1941 |  July 9, 1945 |  April 28, 1949 |  February 14, 1953 |
| 151 | 153 | 155 | ||
 December 2, 1956 |  September 20, 1960 |  July 9, 1964 | ||
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.
The partial solar eclipses on December 18, 2188 (part of Saros 164) and November 18, 2199 (part of Saros 165) are also a part of this series but are not included in the table below.
| Series members between 1801 and 2134 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 December 10, 1806 (Saros 129) |  November 9, 1817 (Saros 130) |  October 9, 1828 (Saros 131) |  September 7, 1839 (Saros 132) |  August 7, 1850 (Saros 133) |
 July 8, 1861 (Saros 134) |  June 6, 1872 (Saros 135) |  May 6, 1883 (Saros 136) |  April 6, 1894 (Saros 137) |  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) |  August 24, 2101 (Saros 156) |  July 23, 2112 (Saros 157) |  June 23, 2123 (Saros 158) |
 May 23, 2134 (Saros 159) | ||||
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 | ||
|---|---|---|
 February 21, 1822 (Saros 137) |  February 1, 1851 (Saros 138) |  January 11, 1880 (Saros 139) |
 December 23, 1908 (Saros 140) | December 2, 1937 (Saros 141) |  November 12, 1966 (Saros 142) |
 October 24, 1995 (Saros 143) |  October 2, 2024 (Saros 144) |  September 12, 2053 (Saros 145) |
 August 24, 2082 (Saros 146) |  August 4, 2111 (Saros 147) |  July 14, 2140 (Saros 148) |
 June 25, 2169 (Saros 149) |  June 4, 2198 (Saros 150) | |
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