Solar eclipse of December 25, 1954

Solar eclipse of December 25, 1954
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	-0.2576
Magnitude	0.9323
Maximum eclipse
Duration	459 sec (7 m 39 s)
Coordinates	38°24′S 68°12′E / 38.4°S 68.2°E
Max. width of band	262 km (163 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	7:36:42
References
Saros	131 (47 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9409

An annular solar eclipse occurred on December 25, 1954. 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.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1953-1956

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.

Note: Partial solar eclipse of February 14, 1953 and August 9, 1953 belong to the last lunar year set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1953–1956
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
116	July 11, 1953 Partial		121	January 5, 1954 Annular
126	June 30, 1954 Total		131	December 25, 1954 Annular
136	June 20, 1955 Total		141	December 14, 1955 Annular
146	June 8, 1956 Total		151	December 2, 1956 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.^[1]

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).

21 eclipse events between July 31, 1924 and July 31, 2000
July 31-Aug 1	May 19-20	March 7	December 24-25	October 12
115	117	119	121	123
July 31, 1924	May 19, 1928	March 7, 1932	December 25, 1935	October 12, 1939
125	127	129	131	133
August 1, 1943	May 20, 1947	March 7, 1951	December 25, 1954	October 12, 1958
135	137	139	141	143
July 31, 1962	May 20, 1966	March 7, 1970	December 24, 1973	October 12, 1977
145	147	149	151	153
July 31, 1981	May 19, 1985	March 7, 1989	December 24, 1992	October 12, 1996
155
July 31, 2000

References

Notes

1. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros131.html

Sources

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