Solar eclipse of January 14, 1926

Solar eclipse of January 14, 1926
A photo of the eclipse, taken from Sumatra by John A. Miller of the Swarthmore expedition
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.1973
Magnitude	1.043
Maximum eclipse
Duration	251 s (4 min 11 s)
Coordinates	10°06′S82°18′E / 10.1°S 82.3°E / -10.1; 82.3
Max. width of band	147 km (91 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	6:36:58
References
Saros	130 (47 of 73)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9341

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Thursday, January 14, 1926, with a magnitude of 1.043. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring 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 French Equatorial Africa (the part now belonging to Central African Republic), northeastern Belgian Congo (today's DR Congo), southwestern tip of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (the part now belonging to South Sudan), British Uganda (today's Uganda), British Kenya (today's Kenya), southern tip of Italian Somaliland (today's Somalia), British Seychelles (today's Seychelles), Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia), North Borneo (now belonging to Malaysia), and Philippines.

The event was observed by astronomers, of which several groups gathered in Sumatra, to watch the eclipse. ^[1] One was from Germany, one was from the Netherlands, and three were from the United States (the Naval Observatory, Sproul Observatory, and the Bureau of Standards). ^{[1] [2]} A Reuters correspondent gave the total number of astronomers on Sumatra as 50. ^[3]

The Dutch expedition, in Palambang, was unable to observe the first phase of the eclipse (due to cloud coverage); ^[3] the leader of a British expedition in Bencoolen reported that he had "carried out his full program". ^[3] The Naval Observatory was specifically cited as being set up in Tebing Tinggi, in the southeast of Sumatra. ^[4] One objective of the observations was to evaluate Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity; cloudy conditions made this difficult. John Miller, head of an expedition from Swarthmore College set up in Bencoolen, ^[4] is quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer : ^[5]

That theory, which was advanced a few years ago to support Newton's law of gravitation, has proved difficult to astronomers, since important data bearing upon it can only be gathered during periods of total eclipse of the Sun. The eclipse in January of last year, which was visible in sections of New England, was also a failure in that respect, since atmospheric conditions were not satisfactory for applying the Einstein theory to the test. Special photographic equipment for gathering data on the theory was taken to Sumatra by the Swarthmore scientists, and four playtes wer made during the eclipse, Dr. Miller cabled.

[...]

"No authentic statement can be made until after the plates have been developed, but we believe that the ten plates exposed in the great 62-foot camera are not seriously affected; the ones in the shorter cameras may be, but it is not likely. We are apprehensive that the four plates exposed in the fifteen-foot twin-camera for the Einstein effect are damaged. The stars surrounding the sun were rather faint and we fear the thin clouds may have blotted the faint stars out. If this is so the Einstein experiment will have failed." ^[5]

The Swarthmore team had arrived in November 1925, and taken two months to set up the equipment for the observation. ^[5] Apart from the relativity experiments, other photographs were taken to better understand the composition of the Sun's corona: "Because of the immense distances from the sun's surface which the corona attains, it has been assumed by astronomers that the corona was not composed of gases as are the 'prominences,' seen nearer the surface. What the composition of the corona may be has not been discovered." ^[2] While the experiments in Sumatra observed the event nearly unobstructed, others in Manila failed completely, on account of cloudy weather. ^{[2] [4]} Australian reports from Melbourne confirmed it was visible there. ^{[2] [4]}

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1926

• A total solar eclipse on January 14, 1926.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on January 28, 1926.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on June 25, 1926.
• An annular solar eclipse on July 9, 1926.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on July 25, 1926.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on December 19, 1926.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 28, 1922
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 1, 1929

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 3, 1918
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 24, 1933

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of January 8, 1917
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of January 19, 1935

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 14, 1915
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 13, 1936

Solar Saros 130

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 3, 1908
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 25, 1944

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 1, 1897
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 25, 1954

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 15, 1839
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012

Solar eclipses of 1924–1928

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. ^[6]

The partial solar eclipses on March 5, 1924 and August 30, 1924 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on May 19, 1928 and November 12, 1928 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1924 to 1928
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
115	July 31, 1924 Partial	−1.4459		120	January 24, 1925 Total	0.8661
125	July 20, 1925 Annular	−0.7193		130 Totality in Sumatra, Indonesia	January 14, 1926 Total	0.1973
135	July 9, 1926 Annular	0.0538		140	January 3, 1927 Annular	−0.4956
145	June 29, 1927 Total	0.8163		150	December 24, 1927 Partial	−1.2416
155	June 17, 1928 Partial	1.5107

Saros 130

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 130, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1096. It contains total eclipses from April 5, 1475 through July 18, 2232. There are no annular or hybrid eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on October 25, 2394. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 30 at 6 minutes, 41 seconds on July 11, 1619. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit. ^[7]

Series members 41–62 occur between 1801 and 2200:
41	42	43
November 9, 1817	November 20, 1835	November 30, 1853
44	45	46
December 12, 1871	December 22, 1889	January 3, 1908
47	48	49
January 14, 1926	January 25, 1944	February 5, 1962
50	51	52
February 16, 1980	February 26, 1998	March 9, 2016
53	54	55
March 20, 2034	March 30, 2052	April 11, 2070
56	57	58
April 21, 2088	May 3, 2106	May 14, 2124
59	60	61
May 25, 2142	June 4, 2160	June 16, 2178
62
June 26, 2196

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 14, 1926 (Saros 130)	December 25, 1954 (Saros 131)	December 4, 1983 (Saros 132)
November 13, 2012 (Saros 133)	October 25, 2041 (Saros 134)	October 4, 2070 (Saros 135)
September 14, 2099 (Saros 136)

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2100
December 21, 1805 (Saros 119)	November 19, 1816 (Saros 120)	October 20, 1827 (Saros 121)
September 18, 1838 (Saros 122)	August 18, 1849 (Saros 123)	July 18, 1860 (Saros 124)
June 18, 1871 (Saros 125)	May 17, 1882 (Saros 126)	April 16, 1893 (Saros 127)
March 17, 1904 (Saros 128)	February 14, 1915 (Saros 129)	January 14, 1926 (Saros 130)
December 13, 1936 (Saros 131)	November 12, 1947 (Saros 132)	October 12, 1958 (Saros 133)
September 11, 1969 (Saros 134)	August 10, 1980 (Saros 135)	July 11, 1991 (Saros 136)
June 10, 2002 (Saros 137)	May 10, 2013 (Saros 138)	April 8, 2024 (Saros 139)
March 9, 2035 (Saros 140)	February 5, 2046 (Saros 141)	January 5, 2057 (Saros 142)
December 6, 2067 (Saros 143)	November 4, 2078 (Saros 144)	October 4, 2089 (Saros 145)
September 4, 2100 (Saros 146)

In the 22nd century:

• Solar saros 147: annular solar eclipse of August 4, 2111
• Solar saros 148: total solar eclipse of July 4, 2122
• Solar saros 149: total solar eclipse of June 3, 2133
• Solar saros 150: annular solar eclipse of May 3, 2144
• Solar saros 151: annular solar eclipse of April 2, 2155
• Solar saros 152: total solar eclipse of March 2, 2166
• Solar saros 153: annular solar eclipse of January 29, 2177
• Solar saros 154: annular solar eclipse of December 29, 2187
• Solar saros 155: total solar eclipse of November 28, 2198

In the 23rd century:

• Solar saros 156: annular solar eclipse of October 29, 2209
• Solar saros 157: annular solar eclipse of September 27, 2220
• Solar saros 158: total solar eclipse of August 28, 2231
• Solar saros 159: partial solar eclipse of July 28, 2242
• Solar saros 160: partial solar eclipse of June 26, 2253
• Solar saros 161: partial solar eclipse of May 26, 2264
• Solar saros 162: partial solar eclipse of April 26, 2275
• Solar saros 163: partial solar eclipse of March 25, 2286
• Solar saros 164: partial solar eclipse of February 22, 2297

In Popular Culture

The eclipse plays a central role in the Call of Cthulhu campaign 'Masks of Nyarlathotep'.

Notes

1. "Eclipse Brings Scientists Across World". Mount Vernon Argus. White Plains, New York. 1926-01-15. p. 25. Retrieved 2023-10-17– via Newspapers.com.
2. "Hopeful reports from scientists on sun's eclipse". The Butte Daily Post. Butte, Montana. 1926-01-15. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-10-17– via Newspapers.com.
3. "50 Astronomers Watch Eclipse with Mixed Results". The Evening News. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 1926-01-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-10-17– via Newspapers.com.
4. "Astronomers view eclipse of the sun". Blackwell Journal-Tribune. Blackwell, Oklahoma. 1926-01-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-10-17– via Newspapers.com.
5. "Einstein Solution By Eclipse Fails". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1926-01-15. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-10-17– via Newspapers.com.
6. 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.
7. "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 130". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• Photo of Solar Corona January 14, 1926
• Personal Experiences at Eclipse Expeditions, By S. A. Mitchell, Director of the Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia