Solar eclipse of January 4, 1973

Solar eclipse of January 4, 1973
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	-0.2644
Magnitude	0.9303
Maximum eclipse
Duration	469 sec (7 m 49 s)
Coordinates	37°54′S 51°12′W / 37.9°S 51.2°W
Max. width of band	271 km (168 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	15:46:21
References
Saros	131 (48 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9449

An annular solar eclipse occurred on January 4, 1973. 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.

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 1971-1974

Each member 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.

Note: Partial solar eclipses on February 25, 1971 and August 20, 1971 occur in the next lunar year set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1971-1974

Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
116	July 22, 1971 Partial		121	January 16, 1972 Annular
126	July 10, 1972 Total		131	January 4, 1973 Annular
136	June 30, 1973 Total		141	December 24, 1973 Annular
146	June 20, 1974 Total		151	December 13, 1974 Partial

Saros 131

It is a part of Saros cycle 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 1, 1125. It contains total eclipses from March 27, 1522 through May 30, 1612 and hybrid eclipses from June 10, 1630 through July 24, 1702, and annular eclipses from August 4, 1720 through June 18, 2243. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on September 2, 2369. The longest duration of totality was only 58 seconds on May 30, 1612.^[1]

Series members 46–56 occur between 1901 and 2100
46	47	48
December 3, 1918	December 13, 1936	December 25, 1954
49	50	51
January 4, 1973	January 15, 1991	January 26, 2009
52	53	54
February 6, 2027	February 16, 2045	February 28, 2063
55	56
March 10, 2081	March 21, 2099

Metonic series

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).

21 eclipse events between August 12, 1942 and August 11, 2018
August 10-12	May 30	March 18	January 4-5	October 23-24
115	117	119	121	123
August 12, 1942	May 30, 1946	March 18, 1950	January 5, 1954	October 23, 1957
125	127	129	131	133
August 11, 1961	May 30, 1965	March 18, 1969	January 4, 1973	October 23, 1976
135	137	139	141	143
August 10, 1980	May 30, 1984	March 18, 1988	January 4, 1992	October 24, 1995
145	147	149	151	153
August 11, 1999	May 31, 2003	March 19, 2007	January 4, 2011	October 23, 2014
155
August 11, 2018

Notess

1. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros131.html

References

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