Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922

Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	−0.213
Magnitude	1.0678
Maximum eclipse
Duration	359 s (5 min 59 s)
Coordinates	10°42′S 104°30′E / 10.7°S 104.5°E
Max. width of band	226 km (140 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	4:40:31
References
Saros	133 (40 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9333

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, September 21, 1922, with a magnitude of 1.0678. 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. The greatest eclipse occurred exactly at perigee.

Totality started in Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland (today's Somalia), and passed British Maldives and Christmas Island in the Straits Settlements (now in Australia) in the Indian Ocean, and Australia.

Observations[edit]

Observations of the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 got results consistent with gravitational lens proposed by Einstein's general relativity. To reconfirm the result, observatories in South Australia and New South Wales each organized a large scientific expedition. A total of 20 teams went to sparsely populated Wallal on the northern coast of Western Australia. Among them, the American team from the Lick Observatory arrived in Sydney on August 5, took a train westward and arrived in Perth on August 16. The team took a ship on August 20 from Fremantle, a port southwest of Perth, to Broome, and then finally arrived at Wallal. Although not organizing any observations, the Australian government provided financial support to the teams. For example, the round-trip travel expenses between Sydney and Wallal were paid by the federal government.^[1]^[2]

Related eclipses[edit]

Solar eclipses of 1921–1924[edit]

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.^[3]

The partial solar eclipse on July 31, 1924 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1921 to 1924
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
118	April 8, 1921 Annular	0.8869	123	October 1, 1921 Total	−0.9383
128	March 28, 1922 Annular	0.1711	133	September 21, 1922 Total	−0.213
138	March 17, 1923 Annular	−0.5438	143	September 10, 1923 Total	0.5149
148	March 5, 1924 Partial	−1.2232	153	August 30, 1924 Partial	1.3123

Saros 133[edit]

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 133, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on July 13, 1219. It contains annular eclipses from November 20, 1435 through January 13, 1526; a hybrid eclipse on January 24, 1544; and total eclipses from February 3, 1562 through June 21, 2373. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on September 5, 2499. 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 annularity was produced by member 25 at 1 minutes, 14 seconds on November 30, 1453, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 61 at 6 minutes, 50 seconds on August 7, 1850. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[4]

Series members 34–55 occur between 1801 and 2200:
34	35	36
July 17, 1814	July 27, 1832	August 7, 1850
37	38	39
August 18, 1868	August 29, 1886	September 9, 1904
40	41	42
September 21, 1922	October 1, 1940	October 12, 1958
43	44	45
October 23, 1976	November 3, 1994	November 13, 2012
46	47	48
November 25, 2030	December 5, 2048	December 17, 2066
49	50	51
December 27, 2084	January 8, 2103	January 19, 2121
52	53	54
January 30, 2139	February 9, 2157	February 21, 2175
55
March 3, 2193