Solar eclipse of December 3, 1899

86°36′S 121°30′E / 86.6°S 121.5°E / -86.6; 121.5Max. width of band140 km (87 mi)Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse0:57:28ReferencesSaros121 (54 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000)9280

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Saturday, December 2 and Sunday, December 3, 1899,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.9836. 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. Occurring about 4.25 days before perigee (on December 7, 1899, at 6:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[2]

The path of annularity was visible from parts of Antarctica. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of southern Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.

The eclipse took place in much of the southeast part of the Indian Ocean and included some of the islands and all of Antarctica (many areas had a 24-hour daylight at the time) except for the South Orkney Islands, it also included most of the south of Western Australia, a part of the southwesternmost state of Victoria and much of Tasmania except for the northeasternmost part, most of New Zealand's South Island, particularly the southern part and a part of the southern portion of the Pacific Ocean. The rim of the eclipse included the area hundreds of miles (or kilometers) from Cocos Islands and the southernmost of South America, it also included the southernmost portion of the Atlantic Ocean.

The umbral portion crossed the middle of Antarctica which was close to the South Pole and the south part of the middle of the continent's peninsula, it lasted over a minute.

The eclipse began at sunrise thousands of miles (or kilometers) offshore from Africa and west of Australia and ended at sunset at Patagonia and thousands of kilometers offshore from Chile and Peru. The greatest eclipse was in the Antarctic Peninsula north of the South Pole at 86.6 S and 121.5 E at 0:57 UTC (8:57 AM local time).^[3]

It was around 65% obscured in Antarctica where the Indian and the Pacific Oceans separates.

As the moon moved towards the left on Earth in Australia and New Zealand, at the other side of Northern Antarctica that includes the 70th meridian, it was seen as it was moved towards the bottom right, in areas within the Prime Meridian, it moved right, at the peninsula, it then moved top right as the axis spun at around the 68th parallel south.

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.^[4]

December 3, 1899 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1899 December 02 at 22:39:46.9 UTC
First Umbral External Contact	1899 December 03 at 00:10:07.9 UTC
First Central Line	1899 December 03 at 00:11:50.2 UTC
Greatest Duration	1899 December 03 at 00:11:50.2 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact	1899 December 03 at 00:13:35.8 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1899 December 03 at 00:47:39.3 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1899 December 03 at 00:57:27.6 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1899 December 03 at 01:01:47.7 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact	1899 December 03 at 01:41:19.0 UTC
Last Central Line	1899 December 03 at 01:43:01.8 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact	1899 December 03 at 01:44:41.3 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1899 December 03 at 03:15:00.7 UTC

December 3, 1899 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.98358
Eclipse Obscuration	0.96744
Gamma	−0.90612
Sun Right Ascension	16h36m20.0s
Sun Declination	-22°03'32.4"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'13.7"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	16h36m10.0s
Moon Declination	-22°56'05.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'51.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°58'12.6"
ΔT	-2.9 s

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, 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.

Eclipse season of December 1899

December 3 Ascending node (new moon)	December 17 Descending node (full moon)
Annular solar eclipse Solar Saros 121	Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 133

• A partial solar eclipse on January 11.
• A partial solar eclipse on June 8.
• A total lunar eclipse on June 23.
• An annular solar eclipse on December 3, 1899.
• A partial lunar eclipse on December 17.

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 13, 1896
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 21, 1903

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 20, 1892
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 14, 1907

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of November 26, 1890
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 7, 1908

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 1, 1889
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 2, 1910

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 21, 1881
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 14, 1917

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 22, 1870
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 12, 1928

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 1, 1813
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 3, 1986

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.^[5]

The solar eclipses on January 22, 1898 (total) and July 18, 1898 (annular) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on April 8, 1902 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1898 to 1902
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
111	December 13, 1898 Partial	−1.5252		116	June 8, 1899 Partial	1.2089
121	December 3, 1899 Annular	−0.9061		126 Totality in Wadesboro, North Carolina	May 28, 1900 Total	0.3943
131	November 22, 1900 Annular	−0.2245		136	May 18, 1901 Total	−0.3626
141	November 11, 1901 Annular	0.4758		146	May 7, 1902 Partial	−1.0831
151	October 31, 1902 Partial	1.1556

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 121, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on April 25, 944 AD. It contains total eclipses from July 10, 1070 through October 9, 1809; hybrid eclipses on October 20, 1827 and October 30, 1845; and annular eclipses from November 11, 1863 through February 28, 2044. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 7, 2206. 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 39 at 6 minutes, 20 seconds on June 21, 1629, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 62 at 2 minutes, 27 seconds on February 28, 2044. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[6]

Series members 49–70 occur between 1801 and 2200:
49	50	51
October 9, 1809	October 20, 1827	October 30, 1845
52	53	54
November 11, 1863	November 21, 1881	December 3, 1899
55	56	57
December 14, 1917	December 25, 1935	January 5, 1954
58	59	60
January 16, 1972	January 26, 1990	February 7, 2008
61	62	63
February 17, 2026	February 28, 2044	March 11, 2062
64	65	66
March 21, 2080	April 1, 2098	April 13, 2116
67	68	69
April 24, 2134	May 4, 2152	May 16, 2170
70
May 26, 2188

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

22 eclipse events between December 2, 1880 and July 9, 1964
December 2–3	September 20–21	July 9–10	April 26–28	February 13–14
111	113	115	117	119
December 2, 1880		July 9, 1888	April 26, 1892	February 13, 1896
121	123	125	127	129
December 3, 1899	September 21, 1903	July 10, 1907	April 28, 1911	February 14, 1915
131	133	135	137	139
December 3, 1918	September 21, 1922	July 9, 1926	April 28, 1930	February 14, 1934
141	143	145	147	149
December 2, 1937	September 21, 1941	July 9, 1945	April 28, 1949	February 14, 1953
151	153	155
December 2, 1956	September 20, 1960	July 9, 1964

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 2200
September 8, 1801 (Saros 112)	August 7, 1812 (Saros 113)	July 8, 1823 (Saros 114)	June 7, 1834 (Saros 115)	May 6, 1845 (Saros 116)
April 5, 1856 (Saros 117)	March 6, 1867 (Saros 118)	February 2, 1878 (Saros 119)	January 1, 1889 (Saros 120)	December 3, 1899 (Saros 121)
November 2, 1910 (Saros 122)	October 1, 1921 (Saros 123)	August 31, 1932 (Saros 124)	August 1, 1943 (Saros 125)	June 30, 1954 (Saros 126)
May 30, 1965 (Saros 127)	April 29, 1976 (Saros 128)	March 29, 1987 (Saros 129)	February 26, 1998 (Saros 130)	January 26, 2009 (Saros 131)
December 26, 2019 (Saros 132)	November 25, 2030 (Saros 133)	October 25, 2041 (Saros 134)	September 22, 2052 (Saros 135)	August 24, 2063 (Saros 136)
July 24, 2074 (Saros 137)	June 22, 2085 (Saros 138)	May 22, 2096 (Saros 139)	April 23, 2107 (Saros 140)	March 22, 2118 (Saros 141)
February 18, 2129 (Saros 142)	January 20, 2140 (Saros 143)	December 19, 2150 (Saros 144)	November 17, 2161 (Saros 145)	October 17, 2172 (Saros 146)
September 16, 2183 (Saros 147)	August 16, 2194 (Saros 148)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
February 1, 1813 (Saros 118)	January 11, 1842 (Saros 119)	December 22, 1870 (Saros 120)
December 3, 1899 (Saros 121)	November 12, 1928 (Saros 122)	October 23, 1957 (Saros 123)
October 3, 1986 (Saros 124)	September 13, 2015 (Saros 125)	August 23, 2044 (Saros 126)
August 3, 2073 (Saros 127)	July 15, 2102 (Saros 128)	June 25, 2131 (Saros 129)
June 4, 2160 (Saros 130)	May 15, 2189 (Saros 131)

• List of solar eclipses in the 19th century

• Google interactive maps
• Solar eclipse data