Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919

Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919
From the report of Sir Arthur Eddington on the expedition to the island of Principe (off the west coast of Africa).
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	−0.2955
Magnitude	1.0719
Maximum eclipse
Duration	411 s (6 min 51 s)
Coordinates	4.4°N 16.7°W / 4.4; -16.7
Max. width of band	244 km (152 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	13:08:55
References
Saros	136 (32 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9326

A total solar eclipse occurred on May 29, 1919. With a maximum duration of totality of 6 minutes 51 seconds, it was one of the longest solar eclipses of the 20th century. It was visible throughout most of South America and Africa as a partial eclipse. Totality occurred through a narrow path across central Brazil after sunrise, across the Atlantic ocean and into south central Africa ending near sunset in eastern Africa.

Observations

See also: Experimentum crucis

Total solar eclipse of May 29-1919, as emulated by program Celestia version 1.5.1 under KDE 3.5.10 release 21.13.1, operating system SuSe Linux 11.1. All systems under free licence (GPL).

This eclipse was photographed from the expedition of Sir Arthur Eddington to the island of Principe (off the west coast of Africa). Positions of star images within the field near the Sun were used to test Albert Einstein's prediction of the bending of light around the Sun from his general theory of relativity. The stars which Eddington's expedition observed were in the constellation Taurus.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 1916–1920

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.

The solar eclipses on February 3, 1916 (total), July 30, 1916 (annular), January 23, 1917 (partial), and July 19, 1917 (partial) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1916 to 1920
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
111	December 24, 1916 Partial	−1.5321		116	June 19, 1917 Partial	1.2857
121	December 14, 1917 Annular	−0.9157		126	June 8, 1918 Total	0.4658
131	December 3, 1918 Annular	−0.2387		136 Totality in Príncipe	May 29, 1919 Total	−0.2955
141	November 22, 1919 Annular	0.4549		146	May 18, 1920 Partial	−1.0239
151	November 10, 1920 Partial	1.1287

Saros 136

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 136, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 14, 1360. It contains annular eclipses from September 8, 1504 through November 12, 1594; hybrid eclipses from November 22, 1612 through January 17, 1703; and total eclipses from January 27, 1721 through May 13, 2496. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 30, 2622. 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 was produced by member 9 at 32 seconds on September 8, 1504, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 34 at 7 minutes, 7.74 seconds on June 20, 1955. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 26–47 occur between 1801 and 2200:
26	27	28
March 24, 1811	April 3, 1829	April 15, 1847
29	30	31
April 25, 1865	May 6, 1883	May 18, 1901
32	33	34
May 29, 1919	June 8, 1937	June 20, 1955
35	36	37
June 30, 1973	July 11, 1991	July 22, 2009
38	39	40
August 2, 2027	August 12, 2045	August 24, 2063
41	42	43
September 3, 2081	September 14, 2099	September 26, 2117
44	45	46
October 7, 2135	October 17, 2153	October 29, 2171
47
November 8, 2189

References

• NASA chart and statistics
• Fotos of Solar Corona May 29, 1919
• Wired.com: May 29, 1919: A Major Eclipse, Relatively Speaking
• Famous Eclipse of 1919