A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 17, 1912, with a magnitude of 1.0003. It was a hybrid event, starting and ending as an annular eclipse, with only a small portion of totality (only 1.3 km (0.808 mi or 4,265 feet) wide). 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 hybrid solar eclipse is a rare type of solar eclipse that changes its appearance from annular to total and back as the Moon's shadow moves across the Earth's surface. Totality occurs between the annularity paths across the surface of the Earth, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring 7.4 days after apogee (on April 10, 1912, at 0:50 UTC) and 5.5 days before perigee (on April 22, 1912, at 22:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Annularity was first visible from southeastern tip of Venezuela, northern tip of Brazil, British Guyana (today's Guyana), Dutch Guiana (today's Suriname) and Porto Santo Island in Madeira, Portugal, then totality from Portugal and Spain, with annularity continuing northeast across France (including northwestern suburbs of Paris), Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Russian Empire (the parts now belonging to northern Latvia, southern Estonia and Russia). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of eastern South America, eastern North America, West Africa, Europe, and West Asia.

It was the 30th eclipse of the 137th Saros cycle, which began with a partial eclipse on May 25, 1389, and will conclude with a partial eclipse on June 28, 2633. This eclipse occurred two days after the RMS Titanic sank in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.www.astronomeer.com: The "Titanic" eclipse of 17 April 1912 The last annular eclipse in the Netherlands was 17 April 1912, just two days after the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

Observations

The Le Petit Journal cover, on 1912 April 21, shows eclipse watchers in 1912 along with the solar eclipse of May 22, 1724, the previous total solar eclipse visible from Paris, France 17th April 1912: Eclipse fever grips Europe The 1 May 1912 edition of the luso-Brazilian Brasil-Portugal magazine publishes photographs of the eclipse, as it was seen in Lisbon. An editorial says: "One can tell, on that moment, the mathematical regularity that presides over everything that goes on above and the considerable achievements that the oldest of sciences — Astronomy — has been meeting. While some, strong spirits, point out the fact and point out how precise are scientific calculi, the others, believers, consider that what we can grasp is still too little and, not being able to conceive a Creation without a Creator, pay homage to science but continue to kneel before God. The reader can judge the interest that the phenomenon sparked among us by himself though the photographs that follow, where one can see it all; the wise and the godless, the noble and the commoners, women and men, everyone paid no attention to earthly matters and, for a moment, observed with better or worse instruments what was going on up above. It was even a momentaneous rest for politics."

During a hybrid solar eclipse, the apex of the moon's umbral cone is very close to the Earth's surface, and the magnitude is very large. The edges of the moon and the sun are very close to each other as seen from the Earth in both the total and annular portion of the path. A series of Baily's beads on the lunar limb provide an excellent opportunity to measure the size and shape of the Earth, as well as the mountains and valleys on the lunar limb. Measurements were made in Europe during this eclipse to locate precisely the limits of the umbral shadow by spreading people every 100 metres along a straight road.

The hybrid solar eclipse of April 28, 1930, also belonging to Solar Saros 137, also occurred with a magnitude close to 1. Similar observations were made near Camptonville, California. Such observations were also made during two later annular solar eclipses of May 9, 1948 in Rebun Island, Japan and May 20, 1966 in Greece and Turkey, also belonging to the same solar Saros cycle. Similar measurements were also done in New York City during the total solar eclipse of January 24, 1925, which did not belong to the same Saros cycle 137 had a magnitude much larger than 1.

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.

+April 17, 1912 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 1912 April 17 at 08:53:53.3 UTC First Umbral External Contact 1912 April 17 at 10:00:21.2 UTC First Central Line 1912 April 17 at 10:00:52.4 UTC Greatest Duration 1912 April 17 at 10:00:52.4 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 1912 April 17 at 10:01:23.5 UTC Greatest Eclipse 1912 April 17 at 11:34:21.9 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 1912 April 17 at 11:40:06.1 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 1912 April 17 at 12:03:39.6 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 1912 April 17 at 13:07:04.3 UTC Last Central Line 1912 April 17 at 13:07:32.6 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 1912 April 17 at 13:08:00.8 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 1912 April 17 at 14:14:32.4 UTC

+April 17, 1912 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.00032 Eclipse Obscuration 1.00064 Gamma 0.52797 Sun Right Ascension 01h40m32.0s Sun Declination +10°26'25.1" Sun Semi-Diameter 15'55.5" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8" Moon Right Ascension 01h39m36.3s Moon Declination +10°53'32.1" Moon Semi-Diameter 15'42.9" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 0°57'40.6" ΔT 13.7 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 April 1912 April 1Descending node (full moon) April 17Ascending node (new moon) Partial lunar eclipseLunar Saros 111 Hybrid solar eclipseSolar Saros 137

Related eclipses Eclipses in 1912 A partial lunar eclipse on April 1. A hybrid solar eclipse on April 17. A partial lunar eclipse on September 26. A total solar eclipse on October 10.

Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 28, 1908 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 3, 1916

Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 6, 1905 Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919

Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 12, 1903 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 22, 1921

Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 18, 1901 Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 17, 1923

Solar Saros 137 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 6, 1894 Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1930

Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 6, 1883 Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 27, 1941

Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 16, 1825 Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999

Solar eclipses of 1910–1913

Saros 137

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

Notes

References

Photo of Solar Corona April 17, 1912 Russia expedition for solar eclipse of April 17, 1912 The Eclipse of April 17, 1912 as Visible in France Popular Astronomy, vol. 20, pp. 372–375, Flickr photo of eclipse watchers from France