Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955


An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, December 14, 1955, with a magnitude of 0.9176. 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. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1 day before apogee, the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse was 12 minutes, 9.17 seconds in the Indian Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse from December 17, 168 to January 14, 3080. Among all the 23740 solar eclipses from 4000 BC to 6000 AD, 7881 are annular, and only three of them are longer than this one. This was the 20th member of Solar Saros 141, and the last of first set of solar eclipses without a penumbral internal contact, the next event is the December 24, 1973 event, which is the first of 19 solar eclipses with a penumbral internal contact until 2298 Jul 09.
Annularity was visible from French Equatorial Africa, Libya, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan including the capital city Khartoum, French Somaliland including the capital Djibouti City, British Somaliland including the capital city Hargeisa, the Trust Territory of Somaliland, the Maldives, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, Thailand including the capital city Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, China, British Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islands. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of East Africa and Asia.
This was the third of four central solar eclipses visible from Bangkok from 1948 to 1958, where it is extremely rare for a large city to witness four central solar eclipses within 10 years.

Extreme duration

With a maximum length of annularity duration of 12 minutes and 9.17 seconds, this is the longest solar eclipse in the millennium, as well as the longest duration in Saros 141 and one of the longest eclipses ever observed. The annular path begins in northern Africa, then passing Maldives, then crosses just southern edge of Sri Lanka, then the track continues to some countries in Indochina and the track ends just slightly after the track passes Taiwan.

Observation

A joint team of the Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory, Washington, D.C. and the United States Air Force observed the annular eclipse in multiple locations around the world. Among them, in Khartoum, capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the partial phase started before sunrise, and the annular phase was shortly after sunrise. The team measured the refraction with the zenith distance between 80° and 90°.

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.
EventTime
First Penumbral External Contact1955 December 14 at 04:01:44.4 UTC
First Umbral External Contact1955 December 14 at 05:10:54.4 UTC
First Central Line1955 December 14 at 05:14:41.0 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact1955 December 14 at 05:18:29.1 UTC
Greatest Duration1955 December 14 at 07:01:01.9 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1955 December 14 at 07:02:25.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1955 December 14 at 07:04:18.1 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1955 December 14 at 07:07:33.8 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact1955 December 14 at 08:46:19.4 UTC
Last Central Line1955 December 14 at 08:50:08.2 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact1955 December 14 at 08:53:55.4 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1955 December 14 at 10:03:06.4 UTC

ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.91764
Eclipse Obscuration0.84206
Gamma0.42658
Sun Right Ascension17h23m01.9s
Sun Declination-23°10'20.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'14.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension17h22m58.2s
Moon Declination-22°47'23.2"
Moon Semi-Diameter14'42.5"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°53'59.0"
ΔT31.3 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months 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.
November 29
Descending node 		December 14
Ascending node
Partial lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 115		Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 141

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1955

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 141

Inex

Triad