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 sec (6 m 51 s)
Coordinates	4°24′N 16°42′W / 4.4°N 16.7°W
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

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.^[1]

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 1916–1920

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 1916-1920

Ascending node			Descending node
111	December 24, 1916 Partial		116	June 19, 1917 Partial
121	December 14, 1917 Annular		126	June 8, 1918 Total
131	December 3, 1918 Annular		136	May 29, 1919 Total
141	November 22, 1919 Annular		146	May 18, 1920 Partial
151	November 10, 1920 Partial

Saros 136

Solar Saros 136, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, contains 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on Jun 14, 1360, and reached a first annular eclipse on September 8, 1504. It was a hybrid event 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, with the entire series lasting 1262 years. The longest eclipse occurred on June 20, 1955, with a maximum duration of totality at 7 minutes, 8 seconds.^[2]

Series members 29–43 occur between 1865 and 2117
29	30	31
April 25, 1865	May 6, 1883	May 18, 1901
32	33	34
May 29, 1919	Jun 8, 1937	Jun 20, 1955
35	36	37
Jun 30, 1973	Jul 11, 1991	Jul 22, 2009
38	39	40
Aug 2, 2027	Aug 12, 2045	Aug. 24, 2063
41	42	43
Sep. 3, 2081	Sep. 14, 2099	Sep. 26, 2117

Notes

1. F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson (1920). "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. CCXX-A 579: 291–333. doi:10.1098/rsta.1920.0009.
2. SEsaros136 at NASA.gov

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