Solar eclipse of March 16, 1942

72°12′S 76°48′W / 72.2°S 76.8°W / -72.2; -76.8Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse23:37:07ReferencesSaros148 (17 of 75)Catalog # (SE5000)9379

A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Monday, March 16 and Tuesday, March 17, 1942,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.6393. 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 parts of Antarctica and southern Oceania.

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]

March 16, 1942 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1942 March 16 at 21:44:48.6 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1942 March 16 at 22:54:14.8 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1942 March 16 at 23:37:06.8 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1942 March 16 at 23:50:18.2 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1942 March 17 at 01:29:50.5 UTC

March 16, 1942 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.63936
Eclipse Obscuration	0.54379
Gamma	−1.19082
Sun Right Ascension	23h44m24.0s
Sun Declination	-01°41'22.1"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'04.3"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	23h45m46.3s
Moon Declination	-02°45'29.1"
Moon Semi-Diameter	15'26.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	0°56'41.2"
ΔT	25.4 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 March 1942

March 3 Ascending node (full moon)	March 16 Descending node (new moon)
Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 122	Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 148

• A total lunar eclipse on March 3.
• A partial solar eclipse on March 16.
• A partial solar eclipse on August 12.
• A total lunar eclipse on August 26.
• A partial solar eclipse on September 10.

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 29, 1938
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 3, 1946

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 3, 1935
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1949

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 12, 1933
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 23, 1951

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1931
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 14, 1953

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 5, 1924
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 27, 1960

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 6, 1913
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 16, 1855
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 14, 2029

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 August 12, 1942 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1939 to 1942
Descending node				Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
118	April 19, 1939 Annular	0.9388		123	October 12, 1939 Total	−0.9737
128	April 7, 1940 Annular	0.219		133	October 1, 1940 Total	−0.2573
138	March 27, 1941 Annular	−0.5025		143	September 21, 1941 Total	0.4649
148	March 16, 1942 Partial	−1.1908		153	September 10, 1942 Partial	1.2571

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 148, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 75 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on September 21, 1653. It contains annular eclipses on April 29, 2014 and May 9, 2032; a hybrid eclipse on May 20, 2050; and total eclipses from May 31, 2068 through August 3, 2771. The series ends at member 75 as a partial eclipse on December 12, 2987. 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 22 at 22 seconds (by default) on May 9, 2032, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 54 at 5 minutes, 23 seconds on April 26, 2609. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[4]

Series members 10–31 occur between 1801 and 2200:
10	11	12
December 30, 1815	January 9, 1834	January 21, 1852
13	14	15
January 31, 1870	February 11, 1888	February 23, 1906
16	17	18
March 5, 1924	March 16, 1942	March 27, 1960
19	20	21
April 7, 1978	April 17, 1996	April 29, 2014
22	23	24
May 9, 2032	May 20, 2050	May 31, 2068
25	26	27
June 11, 2086	June 22, 2104	July 4, 2122
28	29	30
July 14, 2140	July 25, 2158	August 4, 2176
31
August 16, 2194

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 16, 1866 and August 9, 1953
March 16–17	January 1–3	October 20–22	August 9–10	May 27–29
108	110	112	114	116
March 16, 1866			August 9, 1877	May 27, 1881
118	120	122	124	126
March 16, 1885	January 1, 1889	October 20, 1892	August 9, 1896	May 28, 1900
128	130	132	134	136
March 17, 1904	January 3, 1908	October 22, 1911	August 10, 1915	May 29, 1919
138	140	142	144	146
March 17, 1923	January 3, 1927	October 21, 1930	August 10, 1934	May 29, 1938
148	150	152	154
March 16, 1942	January 3, 1946	October 21, 1949	August 9, 1953

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.

The partial solar eclipse on November 4, 2116 (part of Saros 164) is also a part of this series but is not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2029
March 24, 1811 (Saros 136)	February 21, 1822 (Saros 137)	January 20, 1833 (Saros 138)	December 21, 1843 (Saros 139)	November 20, 1854 (Saros 140)
October 19, 1865 (Saros 141)	September 17, 1876 (Saros 142)	August 19, 1887 (Saros 143)	July 18, 1898 (Saros 144)	June 17, 1909 (Saros 145)
May 18, 1920 (Saros 146)	April 18, 1931 (Saros 147)	March 16, 1942 (Saros 148)	February 14, 1953 (Saros 149)	January 14, 1964 (Saros 150)
December 13, 1974 (Saros 151)	November 12, 1985 (Saros 152)	October 12, 1996 (Saros 153)	September 11, 2007 (Saros 154)	August 11, 2018 (Saros 155)
July 11, 2029 (Saros 156)

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 5, 1826 (Saros 144)	May 16, 1855 (Saros 145)	April 25, 1884 (Saros 146)
April 6, 1913 (Saros 147)	March 16, 1942 (Saros 148)	February 25, 1971 (Saros 149)
February 5, 2000 (Saros 150)	January 14, 2029 (Saros 151)	December 26, 2057 (Saros 152)
December 6, 2086 (Saros 153)	November 16, 2115 (Saros 154)	October 26, 2144 (Saros 155)
October 7, 2173 (Saros 156)

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