Solar eclipse of September 1, 1951

Solar eclipse of September 1, 1951
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.1557
Magnitude	0.9747
Maximum eclipse
Duration	156 s (2 min 36 s)
Coordinates	16°30′N 8°30′W / 16.5°N 8.5°W / 16.5; -8.5
Max. width of band	91 km (57 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	12:51:51
References
Saros	134 (40 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9401

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, September 1, 1951,^[1] with a magnitude of 0.9747. 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 5.4 days after apogee (on August 27, 1951, at 3:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.^[2]

Annularity was visible from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia in the United States, Spanish Sahara (today's West Sahara), French West Africa (the parts now belonging to Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast), British Gold Coast (today's Ghana), southern tip of French Equatorial Africa (the part now belonging to R. Congo), Belgian Congo (today's DR Congo), Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia), Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), Nyasaland (today's Malawi), and French Madagascar (today's Madagascar). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of eastern North America, the Caribbean, northern South America, Europe, and Africa.