A partial

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

occurred at the Moon's

descending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Sunday, November 20, 1873, with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 0.5138. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, 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 the last of two partial eclipses that took place in 1873.

Description

The eclipse took place in almost the whole of Antarctica (much of it in areas that had a 24-hour daylight at the time) except for areas within the separation of the Indian and Pacific Ocean and the northernmost of its peninsula with its islands which was nighttime, it also occurred largely in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean along with Prince Edward and Kerguelen Islands. The rim of the eclipse included modern-day South Africa and the south of Madagascar, the eclipse was close to Maputo (then Lourenço Marques), Mozambique. The eclipse went as far as hundreds of miles (or kilometers) south of East London, South Africa and around the same parallel with Cape Town. The eclipse started at sunrise in the Indian Ocean and ended at sunset in Antarctica. A very small part occurred on the location of the previous eclipse, many areas occurred on the opposite side. As the moon moved towards the left on Earth in Africa, at the peninsular portion, in Northern and Peninsular Antarctica, it was seen as it was moved towards the bottom right, then right then top as the axis spun at around the 70th parallel south. The center of the Moon's shadow was missed by about 1,300 km above the area (69 S) south of the Antarctic Circle. The eclipse began at sunrise southeast of Madagascar and ended at sunset in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The greatest eclipse was in the Atlantic off the shore of Antarctica at 63.2 S & 9.5 W at 3:22 UTC and occurred after sunrise. It showed up to 25% obscuration of the sun at the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula at the 110th meridian and around 30% in the area of the South Pole, at the northern shore by the 20th meridian, it was close to 50% obscured. The subsolar marking was in Brazil.

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.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an

eclipse season An eclipse season is a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Orbit of the Moon, Moon's orbital plane (orbital inclination, tilted five degrees to the ecliptic, Earth ...

, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) 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 A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1873

* A total lunar eclipse on May 12. * A partial solar eclipse on May 26. * A total lunar eclipse on November 4. * A partial solar eclipse on November 20.

Metonic

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of January 31, 1870 During the 19th century, there were 242 solar eclipses of which 87 were Solar eclipse#Types, partial, 77 were annular, 63 were total and 15 were hybrids between total and annular eclipses. In the 19th century, the greatest number of eclipses in ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 8, 1877

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of October 8, 1866 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of December 31, 1880 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 13, 1864 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of November 25, 1882

Tritos

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of December 21, 1862 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of October 19, 1884 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

Solar Saros 150

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of November 9, 1855 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Friday, November 9, 1855, with a magnitude of 0.4892. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image o ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of December 1, 1891 During the 19th century, there were 242 solar eclipses of which 87 were Solar eclipse#Types, partial, 77 were annular, 63 were total and 15 were hybrids between total and annular eclipses. In the 19th century, the greatest number of eclipses in ...

Inex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of December 9, 1844 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of October 31, 1902 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, October 31, 1902, with a magnitude of 0.696. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of ...

Triad

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of January 19, 1787 Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

* Followed by:

Solar eclipse of September 20, 1960 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Tuesday, September 20 and Wednesday, September 21, 1960, with a magnitude of 0.6139. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby tota ...

Solar eclipses of 1870–1873

The partial solar eclipses on January 31, 1870 and July 28, 1870 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 150

Metonic series

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

Tritos series

Inex series

References

External links

Google interactive maps

Solar eclipse data
{{Solar eclipses 1873 11 Solar eclipse of 11 20 1873 11 November 1873

Description

Eclipse details

Eclipse season

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1873

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 150

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 1870–1873

Saros 150

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

See also

References

External links