Solar eclipse of January 3, 1908

Solar eclipse of January 3, 1908
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.1934
Magnitude	1.0437
Maximum eclipse
Duration	254 s (4 min 14 s)
Coordinates	11°48′S145°06′W / 11.8°S 145.1°W / -11.8; -145.1
Max. width of band	149 km (93 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	21:45:22
References
Saros	130 (46 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9299

A total solar eclipse occurred on January 3, 1908. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} 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 total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Totality was visible from Ebon Atoll in German New Guinea (now in Marshall Islands), British Western Pacific Territories (the part now belonging to Kiribati), Line Islands (now in Kiribati), Phoenix Islands (now in Kiribati) on January 4 (Saturday), and Costa Rica on January 3 (Friday). The green line means eclipse begins or ends at sunrise or sunset. The magenta line means mid eclipse at sunrise or sunset, or northern or southern penumbra limits. The green point means eclipse obscuration of 50%. The blue line means umbral northern and southern limits.

Observations

The eclipse was observed by astronomer William Wallace Campbell of Lick Observatory, viewed from Flint Island, Kiribati, an uninhabited island in the Line Islands. The team of Lick Observatory departed from San Francisco on November 22, 1907, and arrived in Papeete, Tahiti Island, the capital of French Polynesia on December 4. After making preparations of supplies and logistics personnel, it departed again on the evening of December 7 and arrived at Flint Island on the afternoon of the 9: ^[5]

Astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society, Sydney Observatory and surveyors from New Zealand also observed the total eclipse near the observation site of Lick Observatory. The team successfully took images of the corona ^[6] .

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 1906–1909

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse 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. ^[7]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1906 to 1909
Ascending node			Descending node
115	July 21, 1906 Partial		120	January 14, 1907 Total
125	July 10, 1907 Annular		130	January 3, 1908 Total
135	June 28, 1908 Annular		140	December 23, 1908 Hybrid
145	June 17, 1909 Hybrid		150	December 12, 1909 Partial

Saros 130

This eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 130, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 73 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1096. It contains total eclipses from April 5, 1475 through July 18, 2232. There are no annular eclipses in the series. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on October 25, 2394. The longest duration of totality was 6 minutes, 41 seconds on July 11, 1619. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s descending node. ^[8]

Series members 43–56 between 1853 and 2300
43	44	45
November 30, 1853	December 12, 1871	December 22, 1889
46	47	48
January 3, 1908	January 14, 1926	January 25, 1944
49	50	51
February 5, 1962	February 16, 1980	February 26, 1998
52	53	54
March 9, 2016	March 20, 2034	March 30, 2052
55	56	57
April 11, 2070	April 21, 2088	May 3, 2106
58	59	60
May 14, 2124	May 25, 2142	June 4, 2160
61	62	63
June 16, 2178	June 26, 2196	July 8, 2214
64	65	66
July 18, 2232	July 30, 2250	August 9, 2268
67
August 20, 2286

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
January 3, 1908 (Saros 130)	December 13, 1936 (Saros 131)	November 23, 1965 (Saros 132)
November 3, 1994 (Saros 133)	October 14, 2023 (Saros 134)	September 22, 2052 (Saros 135)
September 3, 2081 (Saros 136)

Notes

1. "Obscured by the clouds". The Journal and Tribune. Knoxville, Tennessee. 1908-01-04. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-11-01– via Newspapers.com.
2. "Clouds hide eclipse; many are disappointmented". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. St. Louis, Missouri. 1908-01-04. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-11-01– via Newspapers.com.
3. "FLINT ISLAND PARTY VIEWS SUN ECLIPSE". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. 1908-01-04. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-11-01– via Newspapers.com.
4. "The sun's obscuration". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 1908-01-04. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-11-01– via Newspapers.com.
5. Powerhouse Museum. "Solar Eclipse, Flint Island, Kiribati, 1908". Powerhouse Museum, Australia. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
6. Sebastian Albrecht. "The Lick Observatory-Crocker Expedition to Flint Island". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 2: 115–131. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019.
7. van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
8. "Saros Series catalog of solar eclipses". NASA.

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• Photo of Solar Corona January 3, 1908