| Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955 | |
|---|---|
 Map | |
| Type of eclipse | |
| Nature | Annular |
| Gamma | 0.4266 |
| Magnitude | 0.9176 |
| Maximum eclipse | |
| Duration | 729 s (12 min 9 s) |
| Coordinates | 2°06′N 72°12′E / 2.1°N 72.2°E |
| Max. width of band | 346 km (215 mi) |
| Times (UTC) | |
| Greatest eclipse | 7:02:25 |
| References | |
| Saros | 141 (20 of 70) |
| Catalog # (SE5000) | 9411 |
An annular solar eclipse occurred on December 14, 1955. 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.
Annularity was visible from French Equatorial Africa (the part now belonging to Chad), Libya, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (the part now belonging to Sudan) including the capital city Khartoum, French Somaliland (today's Djibouti) including the capital Djibouti City, British Somaliland (today's Somaliland) including the capital city Hargeisa, the Trust Territory of Somaliland (today's Somalia), the Maldives, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, Thailand including the capital city Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam and South Vietnam (now belonging to Vietnam), China, British Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islands. It was the third central solar eclipse visible from Bangkok from 1948 to 1958, where it is rare for a large city to witness four central solar eclipses in just 9.945 years. This was the 20th member Solar Saros 141, and the last of first set of solar eclipses without a penumbral internal contact (without a penumbra northern limit), the next event is the 1973 Dec 24 event, which is the first of 19 solar eclipses with a penumbral internal contact (has penumbral northern and southern limits) until 2298 Jul 09. Occurring only one day before apogee (December 15, 1955), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse (closest to but slightly shorter than the longest duration) was 12 minutes, 9.17 seconds in the Indian Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse from December 17, 168 to January 14, 3080. Among all the 23740 solar eclipses from 4000 BC to 6000 AD, 7881 are annular, and only 3 of them are longer than this one.[1]
Eclipse Magnitude: 0.91764
Eclipse Obscuration: 0.84206
Gamma: 0.42658
Saros Series: 141st (20 of 70)
Greatest Eclipse: 14 Dec 1955 07:01:53.7 UTC (07:02:25.1 TD)
Ecliptic Conjunction: 14 Dec 1955 07:07:02.4 UTC (07:07:33.8 TD)
Equatorial Conjunction: 14 Dec 1955 07:03:46.6 UTC (07:04:18.1 TD)
Sun right ascension: 17.38
Moon right ascension: 17.38
Earth's shadow right ascension: 5.38
Sun declination: -23.2
Moon declination: -22.8
Earth's shadow declination: 23.2
Sun diameter: 1949.8 arcseconds
Moon diameter: 1765.0 arcseconds
Path Width at Greatest Eclipse: 345.7 km (214.8 mi)
Path Width at Greatest Duration: 345.8 km (214.9 mi)
Central Duration at Greatest Eclipse: 12 minutes, 9.17 seconds
Central Duration at Greatest Duration: 12 minutes, 9.23 seconds
With a maximum length of annularity duration of 12 minutes and 9.17 seconds, this is the longest solar eclipse in the millennium, as well as the longest duration in Saros 141 and one of the longest eclipses ever observed. The annular path begins in northern Africa, then passing Maldives (near the maximum eclipse), then crosses just southern edge of Sri Lanka, then the track continues to some countries in Indochina and the track ends just slightly after the track passes Taiwan.
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.[2]
Note: Partial solar eclipse of February 14, 1953 and August 9, 1953 belong to the last lunar year set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1953 to 1956 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||
| Saros | Map | Saros | Map | |
| 116 |  1953 July 11 Partial |
121 |  1954 January 5 Annular | |
| 126 |  1954 June 30 Total |
131 |  1954 December 25 Annular | |
| 136 |  1955 June 20 Total |
141 | 1955 December 14 Annular | |
| 146 |  1956 June 8 Total |
151 |  1956 December 2 Partial | |
Solar saros 141, repeating every about 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours, contains 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 19, 1613. It contains 41 annular eclipses from August 4, 1739, to October 14, 2460. There are no total eclipses in this series. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 13, 2857. The longest annular eclipse occurred on December 14, 1955, with maximum duration of annularity at 12 minutes and 9 seconds. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node.[3]
| Series members 17–36 occur between 1901 and 2259 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 17 | 18 | 19 |
 November 11, 1901 |
 November 22, 1919 |
 December 2, 1937 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 |
December 14, 1955 |
 December 24, 1973 |
 January 4, 1992 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 |
 January 15, 2010 |
 January 26, 2028 |
 February 5, 2046 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 |
 February 17, 2064 |
 February 27, 2082 |
 March 10, 2100 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
 March 22, 2118 |
 April 1, 2136 |
 April 12, 2154 |
| 32 | 33 | 34 |
 April 23, 2172 |
 May 4, 2190 |
 May 15, 2208 |
| 35 | 36 | |
 May 27, 2226 |
 June 6, 2244 | |
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.
| Inex series members between 1901 and 2100: | ||
|---|---|---|
 January 3, 1927 (Saros 140) |
December 14, 1955 (Saros 141) |
 November 22, 1984 (Saros 142) |
 November 3, 2013 (Saros 143) |
 October 14, 2042 (Saros 144) |
 September 23, 2071 (Saros 145) |
 September 4, 2100 (Saros 146) |
||
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).
| 22 eclipse events between December 13, 1898 and July 20, 1982 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 13–14 | October 1–2 | July 20–21 | May 9 | February 24–25 |
| 111 | 113 | 115 | 117 | 119 |
 December 13, 1898 |
 July 21, 1906 |
 May 9, 1910 |
 February 25, 1914 | |
| 121 | 123 | 125 | 127 | 129 |
 December 14, 1917 |
 October 1, 1921 |
 July 20, 1925 |
 May 9, 1929 |
 February 24, 1933 |
| 131 | 133 | 135 | 137 | 139 |
 December 13, 1936 |
 October 1, 1940 |
 July 20, 1944 |
 May 9, 1948 |
 February 25, 1952 |
| 141 | 143 | 145 | 147 | 149 |
December 14, 1955 |
 October 2, 1959 |
 July 20, 1963 |
 May 9, 1967 |
 February 25, 1971 |
| 151 | 153 | 155 | ||
 December 13, 1974 |
 October 2, 1978 |
 July 20, 1982 | ||
.jpg)
