Solar eclipse of December 24, 1927

66°06′S 47°42′W / 66.1°S 47.7°W / -66.1; -47.7Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse3:59:41ReferencesSaros150 (12 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000)9345

A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, December 24, 1927,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.549. 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 partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.

A partial eclipse was visible for most of Antarctica.

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.^[2]

December 24, 1927 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1927 December 24 at 02:10:08.1 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1927 December 24 at 03:59:41.1 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1927 December 24 at 04:12:05.4 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1927 December 24 at 04:13:34.1 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1927 December 24 at 05:49:03.8 UTC

December 24, 1927 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.54900
Eclipse Obscuration	0.43598
Gamma	−1.24161
Sun Right Ascension	18h05m51.9s
Sun Declination	-23°26'31.6"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'15.7"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	18h05m25.7s
Moon Declination	-24°35'11.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'09.9"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°55'39.4"
ΔT	24.3 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 1927

December 8 Ascending node (full moon)	December 24 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 124	Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 150

• An annular solar eclipse on January 3.
• A total lunar eclipse on June 15.
• A total solar eclipse on June 29.
• A total lunar eclipse on December 8.
• A partial solar eclipse on December 24.

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 5, 1924
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 11, 1931

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 10, 1920
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 3, 1935

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of December 17, 1918
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of December 28, 1936

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 23, 1917
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 21, 1938

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 12, 1909
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 3, 1946

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 11, 1899
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 2, 1956

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 21, 1841
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 23, 2014

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 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

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 150, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 24, 1729. It contains annular eclipses from April 22, 2126 through June 22, 2829. There are no hybrid or total eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on September 29, 2991. 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 will be produced by member 45 at 9 minutes, 58 seconds on December 19, 2522. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[4]

Series members 5–27 occur between 1801 and 2200:
5	6	7
October 7, 1801	October 19, 1819	October 29, 1837
8	9	10
November 9, 1855	November 20, 1873	December 1, 1891
11	12	13
December 12, 1909	December 24, 1927	January 3, 1946
14	15	16
January 14, 1964	January 25, 1982	February 5, 2000
17	18	19
February 15, 2018	February 27, 2036	March 9, 2054
20	21	22
March 19, 2072	March 31, 2090	April 11, 2108
23	24	25
April 22, 2126	May 3, 2144	May 14, 2162
26	27
May 24, 2180	June 4, 2198

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 descending node.

22 eclipse events between March 5, 1848 and July 30, 1935
March 5–6	December 22–24	October 9–11	July 29–30	May 17–18
108	110	112	114	116
March 5, 1848			July 29, 1859	May 17, 1863
118	120	122	124	126
March 6, 1867	December 22, 1870	October 10, 1874	July 29, 1878	May 17, 1882
128	130	132	134	136
March 5, 1886	December 22, 1889	October 9, 1893	July 29, 1897	May 18, 1901
138	140	142	144	146
March 6, 1905	December 23, 1908	October 10, 1912	July 30, 1916	May 18, 1920
148	150	152	154
March 5, 1924	December 24, 1927	October 11, 1931	July 30, 1935

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 1982
November 29, 1807 (Saros 139)	October 29, 1818 (Saros 140)	September 28, 1829 (Saros 141)	August 27, 1840 (Saros 142)	July 28, 1851 (Saros 143)
June 27, 1862 (Saros 144)	May 26, 1873 (Saros 145)	April 25, 1884 (Saros 146)	March 26, 1895 (Saros 147)	February 23, 1906 (Saros 148)
January 23, 1917 (Saros 149)	December 24, 1927 (Saros 150)	November 21, 1938 (Saros 151)	October 21, 1949 (Saros 152)	September 20, 1960 (Saros 153)
August 20, 1971 (Saros 154)	July 20, 1982 (Saros 155)

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
March 13, 1812 (Saros 146)	February 21, 1841 (Saros 147)	January 31, 1870 (Saros 148)
January 11, 1899 (Saros 149)	December 24, 1927 (Saros 150)	December 2, 1956 (Saros 151)
November 12, 1985 (Saros 152)	October 23, 2014 (Saros 153)	October 3, 2043 (Saros 154)
September 12, 2072 (Saros 155)	August 24, 2101 (Saros 156)	August 4, 2130 (Saros 157)
July 15, 2159 (Saros 158)	June 24, 2188 (Saros 159)

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Besselian elements