An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Saturday, March 18, 1950, with a magnitude of 0.962. 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 about 3.8 days before apogee (on March 22, 1950, at 10:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
It was unusual in that while it is an annular solar eclipse, it is not a central solar eclipse. A non-central eclipse is one where the center-line of annularity or totality, whatever it is, does not intersect the surface of the Earth (when the gamma is between 0.9972 and 1.0260). This rare type occurs when annularity is only visible at sunset or sunrise in a polar region.
Annularity was visible from a part of Antarctica. A partial eclipse was visible for extreme southern South America, Antarctica, and Southern Africa. This was the last of 54 umbral solar eclipses in Solar Saros 119.
Eclipse details Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
+March 18, 1950 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1950 March 18 at 13:11:15.9 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1950 March 18 at 14:27:07.9 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1950 March 18 at 15:09:02.7 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1950 March 18 at 15:20:29.9 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1950 March 18 at 15:32:01.3 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1950 March 18 at 15:55:41.2 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1950 March 18 at 17:53:16.2 UTC
+March 18, 1950 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 0.96198 Eclipse Obscuration - Gamma −0.99880 Sun Right Ascension 23h50m43.1s Sun Declination -01°00'22.1" Sun Semi-Diameter 16'03.9" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8" Moon Right Ascension 23h52m29.2s Moon Declination -01°48'04.0" Moon Semi-Diameter 14'55.6" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°54'47.0" ΔT 29.2 s
Eclipse season
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.
+ Eclipse season of March–April 1950 March 18Ascending node (new moon) April 2Descending node (full moon) Annular solar eclipseSolar Saros 119 Total lunar eclipseLunar Saros 131
Related eclipses Eclipses in 1950 A non-central annular solar eclipse on March 18. A total lunar eclipse on April 2. A total solar eclipse on September 12. A total lunar eclipse on September 26.
Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 30, 1946 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 5, 1954
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 4, 1943 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 30, 1957
Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1941 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 24, 1959
Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 19, 1939 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 15, 1961
Solar Saros 119 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 7, 1932 Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 28, 1968
Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 8, 1921 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 26, 1979
Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 17, 1863 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 16, 2037
Solar eclipses of 1950–1953
Saros 119
Metonic series
Tritos series
Inex series
Notes
References