| 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 at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, December 14, 1955,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9176. 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. Occurring only about 24 hours before apogee (on December 15, 1955, at 7:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[2]
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.[3] This was the 20th member of 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 December 24, 1973 event, which is the first of 19 solar eclipses with a penumbral internal contact (has penumbral northern and southern limits) until 2298 Jul 09.
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. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of East Africa and Asia.
This was the third of four central solar eclipses visible from Bangkok from 1948 to 1958, where it is extremely rare for a large city to witness four central solar eclipses within 10 years.
- ^ "December 14, 1955 Annular Solar Eclipse". timeanddate. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
- ^ "Moon Distances for London, United Kingdom, England". timeanddate. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
- ^ "Annular Solar Eclipses with Durations Exceeding 11m 00s: -3999 to 6000". NASA Eclipse Web Site.