An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, August 28, 1802, with a magnitude of 0.9367. 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 3 hours after apogee (on August 28, 1802, at 4:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[1]
The path of annularity was visible from parts of modern-day Greenland, Svalbard, Russia, Mongolia, China, and the Ryukyu Islands. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of Greenland, northern Canada, Europe, Asia, and western Alaska.[2]
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.[3]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1802 August 28 at 04:29:10.1 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1802 August 28 at 05:51:01.7 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1802 August 28 at 05:54:53.7 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1802 August 28 at 05:58:52.8 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1802 August 28 at 06:26:04.0 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1802 August 28 at 07:02:59.7 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1802 August 28 at 07:06:10.3 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1802 August 28 at 07:11:59.6 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1802 August 28 at 08:25:35.5 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1802 August 28 at 08:29:33.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1802 August 28 at 08:33:25.4 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1802 August 28 at 09:55:07.2 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.93666 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.87733 | |
| Gamma | 0.75685 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 10h24m22.1s | |
| Sun Declination | +09°58'43.3" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'50.6" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 10h25m37.4s | |
| Moon Declination | +10°34'58.3" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'41.9" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°53'56.6" | |
| ΔT | 12.6 s |
See also: Eclipse cycle. 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.
The partial solar eclipses on April 13, 1801 and October 7, 1801 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on January 1, 1805 (partial); June 26, 1805 (partial); and December 21, 1805 (annular) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1801 to 1805 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | ||||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | ||
| 107 | March 14, 1801 Partial | −1.4434 | 112 | September 8, 1801 Partial | 1.4657 | ||
| 117 | March 4, 1802 Total | −0.6943 | 122 | August 28, 1802 Annular | 0.7569 | ||
| 127 | February 21, 1803 Total | −0.0075 | 132 | August 17, 1803 Annular | −0.0048 | ||
| 137 | February 11, 1804 Hybrid | 0.7053 | 142 | August 5, 1804 Total | −0.7622 | ||
| 147 | January 30, 1805 Partial | 1.4651 | 152 | July 26, 1805 Partial | −1.4571 | ||
All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.
