Solar eclipse of January 15, 1991

Solar eclipse of January 15, 1991
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	-0.2727
Magnitude	0.929
Maximum eclipse
Duration	7m 53s
Coordinates	36.4S 170.4W
Max. width of band	277 km
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	23:53:51
References
Saros	131 (49 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9488

An annular solar eclipse occurred on January 15–16, 1991. 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.

It was visible over Australia as a partial solar eclipse at sunrise on January 16.

Images

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1990-1992

Each member 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.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1990–1992

Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
			121	January 26, 1990 Annular
126	July 22, 1990 Total		131	January 15, 1991 Annular
136	July 11, 1991 Total		141	January 4, 1992 Annular
146	June 30, 1992 Total		151	December 24, 1992 Partial

Saros 131

It is a part of Saros cycle 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 1, 1125. It contains total eclipses from March 27, 1522 through May 30, 1612 and hybrid eclipses from June 10, 1630 through July 24, 1702, and annular eclipses from August 4, 1720 through June 18, 2243. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on September 2, 2369. The longest duration of totality was only 58 seconds on May 30, 1612.

Series members 46-56 occur between 1901 and 2100:

46	47	48
December 3, 1918	December 13, 1936	December 25, 1954
49	50	51
January 4, 1973	January 15, 1991	January 26, 2009
52	53	54
February 6, 2027	February 16, 2045	February 28, 2063
55	56
March 10, 2081	March 21, 2099

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).

This series has 20 eclipse events between June 10, 1964 and August 21, 2036.

June 10-11	March 27-29	January 15-16	November 3	August 21-22
117	119	121	123	125
June 10, 1964	March 28, 1968	January 16, 1972	November 3, 1975	August 22, 1979
127	129	131	133	135
June 11, 1983	March 29, 1987	January 15, 1991	November 3, 1994	August 22, 1998
137	139	141	143	145
June 10, 2002	March 29, 2006	January 15, 2010	November 3, 2013	August 21, 2017
147	149	151	153	155
June 10, 2021	March 29, 2025	January 14, 2029	November 3, 2032	August 21, 2036

References

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