Solar eclipse of April 26, 1892

42°30′S 119°24′W / 42.5°S 119.4°W / -42.5; -119.4Max. width of band414 km (257 mi)Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse21:55:20ReferencesSaros117 (62 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000)9262

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, April 26, 1892, with a magnitude of 1.0591. 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. Occurring only about 13 hours after perigee (on April 26, 1892, at 9:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[1]

The eclipse was visible in many parts of the South Pacific Ocean. Very few portions occurred over land including New Zealand except for Auckland and the northernmost portion of North Island, islands such as the Chatham Islands, Antipodes, Marquesas Tahiti and Tuamotu, the westernmost fringes of the Antarctica including its peninsula and the westernmost areas of South America including most of the Andes Mountains in Chile, westernmost Argentina, much of Peru, the southwesternmost of Colombia and Ecuador especially the Galapagos.^[2] It was part of solar saros 117.^[3]

The umbral portion which was as far as 414 km (257 mi) and started at the peninsular portion of Antarctica, the rest was in the Pacific Ocean. The greatest occurred in the Pacific Ocean at 42.5 S & 119.4 W at 21:55 UTC (1:55 PM local time) and lasted for over 4 minutes.^[2]

The eclipse was up to around 20% obscured in many parts of New Zealand and around 10% in Tahiti.

The eclipse started at sunrise in New Zealand and finished at sunset in South America mainly at a part of the Andes Mountains. The eclipse was obscured by clouds in Dunedin.^[4][5] It was visible from Timaru further north,^[6] but was not visible due to clouds on Banks Peninsula.^[7] Wellington also experienced heavy cloud cover and the eclipse was thus not visible.^[8]

The subsolar marking was at around the 15th parallel north southeast of Hawaii and northeast of the Palmyra Atoll.

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.^[9]

April 26, 1892 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1892 April 26 at 19:46:52.2 UTC
First Umbral External Contact	1892 April 26 at 21:05:34.5 UTC
First Central Line	1892 April 26 at 21:08:28.4 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact	1892 April 26 at 21:11:31.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1892 April 26 at 21:13:25.5 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1892 April 26 at 21:46:27.2 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1892 April 26 at 21:55:19.9 UTC
Greatest Duration	1892 April 26 at 21:56:19.4 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact	1892 April 26 at 22:39:36.1 UTC
Last Central Line	1892 April 26 at 22:42:37.8 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact	1892 April 26 at 22:45:30.8 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1892 April 27 at 00:04:06.0 UTC

April 26, 1892 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	1.05908
Eclipse Obscuration	1.12164
Gamma	−0.88695
Sun Right Ascension	02h18m58.6s
Sun Declination	+13°53'21.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'52.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.7"
Moon Right Ascension	02h20m31.5s
Moon Declination	+13°04'03.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'41.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°01'15.8"
ΔT	-6.4 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 April–May 1892

April 26 Ascending node (new moon)	May 11 Descending node (full moon)
Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 117	Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 129

• A total solar eclipse on April 26.
• A partial lunar eclipse on May 11.
• A partial solar eclipse on October 20.
• A total lunar eclipse on November 4.

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 9, 1888
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 13, 1896

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 16, 1885
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1899

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 22, 1883
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of May 3, 1901

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 27, 1881
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 29, 1903

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 16, 1874
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 1910

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 17, 1863
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 1921

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 26, 1805
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 26, 1979

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.^[10]

The partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1895 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1892 to 1895
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
117	April 26, 1892 Total	−0.8870		122	October 20, 1892 Partial	1.0286
127	April 16, 1893 Total	−0.1764		132	October 9, 1893 Annular	0.2866
137	April 6, 1894 Hybrid	0.5740		142	September 29, 1894 Total	−0.4573
147	March 26, 1895 Partial	1.3565		152	September 18, 1895 Partial	−1.1469

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 117, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 24, 792 AD. It contains annular eclipses from September 18, 936 AD through May 14, 1333; hybrid eclipses from May 25, 1351 through July 8, 1423; and total eclipses from July 18, 1441 through May 19, 1928. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 3, 2054. 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 16 at 9 minutes, 26 seconds on December 3, 1062, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 62 at 4 minutes, 19 seconds on April 26, 1892. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[11]

Series members 57–71 occur between 1801 and 2054:
57	58	59
March 4, 1802	March 14, 1820	March 25, 1838
60	61	62
April 5, 1856	April 16, 1874	April 26, 1892
63	64	65
May 9, 1910	May 19, 1928	May 30, 1946
66	67	68
June 10, 1964	June 21, 1982	July 1, 2000
69	70	71
July 13, 2018	July 23, 2036	August 3, 2054

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
January 1, 1805 (Saros 109)		October 31, 1826 (Saros 111)		August 28, 1848 (Saros 113)
July 29, 1859 (Saros 114)	June 28, 1870 (Saros 115)	May 27, 1881 (Saros 116)	April 26, 1892 (Saros 117)	March 29, 1903 (Saros 118)
February 25, 1914 (Saros 119)	January 24, 1925 (Saros 120)	December 25, 1935 (Saros 121)	November 23, 1946 (Saros 122)	October 23, 1957 (Saros 123)
September 22, 1968 (Saros 124)	August 22, 1979 (Saros 125)	July 22, 1990 (Saros 126)	June 21, 2001 (Saros 127)	May 20, 2012 (Saros 128)
April 20, 2023 (Saros 129)	March 20, 2034 (Saros 130)	February 16, 2045 (Saros 131)	January 16, 2056 (Saros 132)	December 17, 2066 (Saros 133)
November 15, 2077 (Saros 134)	October 14, 2088 (Saros 135)	September 14, 2099 (Saros 136)	August 15, 2110 (Saros 137)	July 14, 2121 (Saros 138)
June 13, 2132 (Saros 139)	May 14, 2143 (Saros 140)	April 12, 2154 (Saros 141)	March 12, 2165 (Saros 142)	February 10, 2176 (Saros 143)
January 9, 2187 (Saros 144)	December 9, 2197 (Saros 145)

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
June 26, 1805 (Saros 114)	June 7, 1834 (Saros 115)	May 17, 1863 (Saros 116)
April 26, 1892 (Saros 117)	April 8, 1921 (Saros 118)	March 18, 1950 (Saros 119)
February 26, 1979 (Saros 120)	February 7, 2008 (Saros 121)	January 16, 2037 (Saros 122)
December 27, 2065 (Saros 123)	December 7, 2094 (Saros 124)	November 18, 2123 (Saros 125)
October 28, 2152 (Saros 126)	October 8, 2181 (Saros 127)

• List of solar eclipses in the 19th century

• Google interactive maps
• Solar eclipse data