Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922

Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	−0.213
Magnitude	1.0678
Maximum eclipse
Duration	359 s (5 min 59 s)
Coordinates	10°42′S 104°30′E / 10.7°S 104.5°E
Max. width of band	226 km (140 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	4:40:31
References
Saros	133 (40 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9333

A total solar eclipse occurred on September 21, 1922. 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 total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. The greatest eclipse occurred exactly at perigee.

Totality started in Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland (today's Somalia), and passed British Maldives and Christmas Island in the Straits Settlements (now in Australia) in the Indian Ocean, and Australia.

Observations[edit]

Observations of the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 got results consistent with gravitational lens proposed by Einstein's general relativity. To reconfirm the result, observatories in South Australia and New South Wales each organized a large scientific expedition. A total of 20 teams went to sparsely populated Wallal on the northern coast of Western Australia. Among them, the American team from the Lick Observatory arrived in Sydney on August 5, took a train westward and arrived in Perth on August 16. The team took a ship on August 20 from Fremantle, a port southwest of Perth, to Broome, and then finally arrived at Wallal. Although not organizing any observations, the Australian government provided financial support to the teams. For example, the round-trip travel expenses between Sydney and Wallal were paid by the federal government^[1]^[2].

Related eclipses[edit]

Solar eclipses 1921–1924[edit]

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]

Solar eclipse series sets from 1921 to 1924
Descending node		Ascending node
118	April 8, 1921 Annular	123	October 1, 1921 Total
128	March 28, 1922 Annular	133	September 21, 1922 Total
138	March 17, 1923 Annular	143	September 10, 1923 Total
148	March 5, 1924 Partial	153	August 30, 1924 Partial

Saros 133[edit]

Solar Saros 133, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, contains 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on July 13, 1219. It contains annular eclipses from November 20, 1435, through January 13, 1526, with a hybrid eclipse on January 24, 1544. It has total eclipses from February 3, 1562, through June 21, 2373. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on September 5, 2499. The longest duration of totality was 6 minutes, 49.97 seconds on August 7, 1850.^[4] The total eclipses of this saros series are getting shorter and farther south with each iteration. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s ascending node.

Series members 30–56 occur between 1742 and 2211
30	31	32
June 3, 1742	June 13, 1760	June 24, 1778
33	34	35
July 4, 1796	July 17, 1814	July 27, 1832
36	37	38
August 7, 1850	August 18, 1868	August 29, 1886
39	40	41
September 9, 1904	September 21, 1922	October 1, 1940
42	43	44
October 12, 1958	October 23, 1976	November 3, 1994
45	46	47
November 13, 2012	November 25, 2030	December 5, 2048
48	49	50
December 17, 2066	December 27, 2084	January 8, 2103
51	52	53
January 19, 2121	January 30, 2139	February 9, 2157
54	55	56
February 21, 2175	March 3, 2193	March 15, 2211