Solar eclipse of November 20, 1873

A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, November 20, 1873, with a magnitude of 0.5138. 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. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.

Solar eclipse of November 20, 1873

Partial eclipse
Map
Gamma	−1.2625
Magnitude	0.5138
Maximum eclipse
Coordinates	63.2°S 9.5°W / -63.2; -9.5
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	3:22:52
References
Saros	150 (9 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9219
← May 26, 1873 April 16, 1874 →

It was the last of two partial eclipses that took place in 1873.^[1]

Description

The eclipse took place in almost the whole of Antarctica (much of it in areas that had a 24-hour daylight at the time) except for areas within the separation of the Indian and Pacific Ocean and the northernmost of its peninsula with its islands which was nighttime, it also occurred largely in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean along with Prince Edward and Kerguelen Islands. The rim of the eclipse included modern-day South Africa and the south of Madagascar, the eclipse was close to Maputo (then Lourenço Marques), Mozambique.

The eclipse went as far as hundreds of miles (or kilometers) south of East London, South Africa and around the same parallel with Cape Town. The eclipse started at sunrise in the Indian Ocean and ended at sunset in Antarctica. A very small part occurred on the location of the previous eclipse, many areas occurred on the opposite side.

As the moon moved towards the left on Earth in Africa, at the peninsular portion, in Northern and Peninsular Antarctica, it was seen as it was moved towards the bottom right, then right then top as the axis spun at around the 70th parallel south.

The center of the Moon's shadow was missed by about 1,300 km above the area (69 S) south of the Antarctic Circle.

The eclipse began at sunrise southeast of Madagascar and ended at sunset in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The greatest eclipse was in the Atlantic off the shore of Antarctica at 63.2 S & 9.5 W at 3:22 UTC and occurred after sunrise.^[1]

It showed up to 25% obscuration of the sun at the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula at the 110th meridian and around 30% in the area of the South Pole, at the northern shore by the 20th meridian, it was close to 50% obscured. The subsolar marking was in Brazil.

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.^[2]

November 20, 1873 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1873 November 20 at 01:38:06.3 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1873 November 20 at 03:22:52.2 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1873 November 20 at 03:36:46.9 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1873 November 20 at 04:10:56.9 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1873 November 20 at 05:07:13.1 UTC

November 20, 1873 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.51380
Eclipse Obscuration	0.39899
Gamma	−1.26246
Sun Right Ascension	15h42m38.2s
Sun Declination	-19°42'44.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'11.7"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	15h41m02.2s
Moon Declination	-20°49'41.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'17.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°56'05.5"
ΔT	-2.5 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.

Eclipse season of November 1873

November 4 Ascending node (full moon)	November 20 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 124	Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 150

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1873

• A total lunar eclipse on May 12.
• A partial solar eclipse on May 26.
• A total lunar eclipse on November 4.
• A partial solar eclipse on November 20.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 31, 1870
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 8, 1877

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 8, 1866
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 31, 1880

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 13, 1864
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 25, 1882

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 21, 1862
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 19, 1884

Solar Saros 150

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 9, 1855
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 1, 1891

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 9, 1844
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 31, 1902

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 19, 1787
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 20, 1960

Solar eclipses of 1870–1873

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.^[3]

The partial solar eclipses on January 31, 1870 and July 28, 1870 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1870 to 1873
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
115	June 28, 1870 Partial	−1.1949		120	December 22, 1870 Total	0.8585
125	June 18, 1871 Annular	−0.4550		130	December 12, 1871 Total	0.1836
135	June 6, 1872 Annular	0.3095		140	November 30, 1872 Hybrid	−0.5081
145	May 26, 1873 Partial	1.0513		150	November 20, 1873 Partial	−1.2625

Saros 150

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 150, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 24, 1729. It contains annular eclipses from April 22, 2126 through June 22, 2829. There are no hybrid or total eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on September 29, 2991. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 45 at 9 minutes, 58 seconds on December 19, 2522. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[4]

Series members 5–27 occur between 1801 and 2200:
5	6	7
October 7, 1801	October 19, 1819	October 29, 1837
8	9	10
November 9, 1855	November 20, 1873	December 1, 1891
11	12	13
December 12, 1909	December 24, 1927	January 3, 1946
14	15	16
January 14, 1964	January 25, 1982	February 5, 2000
17	18	19
February 15, 2018	February 27, 2036	March 9, 2054
20	21	22
March 19, 2072	March 31, 2090	April 11, 2108
23	24	25
April 22, 2126	May 3, 2144	May 14, 2162
26	27
May 24, 2180	June 4, 2198

Metonic series

The metonic 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 8, 1801 and September 7, 1877
September 7–8	June 26–27	April 14–15	January 31–February 1	November 19–20
112	114	116	118	120
September 8, 1801	June 26, 1805	April 14, 1809	February 1, 1813	November 19, 1816
122	124	126	128	130
September 7, 1820	June 26, 1824	April 14, 1828	February 1, 1832	November 20, 1835
132	134	136	138	140
September 7, 1839	June 27, 1843	April 15, 1847	February 1, 1851	November 20, 1854
142	144	146	148	150
September 7, 1858	June 27, 1862	April 15, 1866	January 31, 1870	November 20, 1873
152
September 7, 1877

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 1801 and 1928
May 25, 1808 (Saros 144)	April 24, 1819 (Saros 145)	March 24, 1830 (Saros 146)	February 21, 1841 (Saros 147)	January 21, 1852 (Saros 148)
December 21, 1862 (Saros 149)	November 20, 1873 (Saros 150)	October 19, 1884 (Saros 151)	September 18, 1895 (Saros 152)	August 20, 1906 (Saros 153)
July 19, 1917 (Saros 154)	June 17, 1928 (Saros 155)

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic 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
December 30, 1815 (Saros 148)	December 9, 1844 (Saros 149)	November 20, 1873 (Saros 150)
October 31, 1902 (Saros 151)	October 11, 1931 (Saros 152)	September 20, 1960 (Saros 153)
August 31, 1989 (Saros 154)	August 11, 2018 (Saros 155)	July 22, 2047 (Saros 156)
July 1, 2076 (Saros 157)	June 12, 2105 (Saros 158)	May 23, 2134 (Saros 159)
	April 12, 2192 (Saros 161)

See also

• List of solar eclipses in the 19th century