Solar eclipse of January 21, 1852


A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, January 21, 1852, with a magnitude of 0.4577. 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.
It was first of three partial eclipses that took place that year within the space of nearly six months, the last one was in June 1852 in the same hemisphere with a very tiny portion in the same area with the previous eclipse but the remainder in South America.

Description

The eclipse was visible in almost the whole of Antarctica which had a 24-hour daylight with the exception of one part of the mid northernmost area of Antarctica by the Indian Ocean and around the area of the Antarctic Circle, a small piece of southernmost Tasmania with Hobart in it, most all of New Zealand's South Island and a small part of Wellington on North Island, the nearby Antipodes, Chatham Islands and Macquarrie Island. It also included the southernmost areas of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The eclipse started at sunrise around the area of the South Orkney Islands and finished at sunset in New Zealand.
The eclipse showed up to 45% obscuration in the area of the greatest eclipse which occurred at sunset.
in Tasmania and southeastern Australia and finished at sunset at the Pacific and a tiny part of Western Antarctica. The greatest eclipse was in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles north of Antarctica at 68.9 S & 124.3 E at 7:12 UTC.
The subsolar marking was in the Indian Ocean around the Tropic of Capricorn and offshore from the Agalega Islands.

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 Contact1852 January 21 at 05:32:16.3 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction1852 January 21 at 06:54:39.4 UTC
Greatest Eclipse1852 January 21 at 07:12:15.7 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction1852 January 21 at 07:26:51.7 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact1852 January 21 at 08:52:28.0 UTC

ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.45774
Eclipse Obscuration0.33832
Gamma−1.29485
Sun Right Ascension20h10m41.9s
Sun Declination-20°03'55.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter16'15.0"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.9"
Moon Right Ascension20h11m18.5s
Moon Declination-21°15'36.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'13.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°55'54.1"
ΔT7.1 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.
January 7
Ascending node
January 21
Descending node
Total lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 122		Partial solar eclipse
Solar Saros 148

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1852

Metonic

Tzolkinex

  • Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 9, 1844
  • Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 4, 1859

Half-Saros

  • Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 16, 1843
  • Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 26, 1861

Tritos

  • Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 31, 1842
  • Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 30, 1864

Solar Saros 148

Inex

  • Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 11, 1823
  • Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 31, 1880

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1848–1852

The partial solar eclipses on April 3, 1848 and September 27, 1848 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on June 17, 1852 and December 11, 1852 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Metonic series

All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.