A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, February 25, 1952,[1] with a magnitude of 1.0366. 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. Occurring 1.4 days after perigee (on February 23, 1952, at 22:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
The path of totality crossed French Equatorial Africa, Belgian Congo, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Arabia, Persia and the Soviet Union. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Africa, Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia.
Astronomers from various countries started traveling to Khartoum, capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from January 1952. The team of the United States Naval Research Laboratory made studies in radio astronomy, spectrum, luminosity of corona and spectral observations.[3] Teams of the High Altitude Observatory of Harvard University and University of Colorado analyzed the spectrum of the Balmer series in the hydrogen spectral series.[4] In addition, French astronomer Bernard Ferdinand Lyot, who invented the coronagraph that allows observing the solar corona at any time, not limited to total solar eclipses, died of a heart attack in Cairo, Egypt on his way back from observing the total solar eclipse in Sudan.[5]
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.[6]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1952 February 25 at 06:38:16.5 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1952 February 25 at 07:38:39.4 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1952 February 25 at 07:39:19.4 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1952 February 25 at 07:39:59.5 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1952 February 25 at 09:07:12.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1952 February 25 at 09:11:34.8 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1952 February 25 at 09:16:27.1 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1952 February 25 at 09:36:51.1 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1952 February 25 at 10:42:56.4 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1952 February 25 at 10:43:34.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1952 February 25 at 10:44:13.4 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1952 February 25 at 11:44:46.4 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.03660 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.07454 | |
| Gamma | 0.46973 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 22h30m04.0s | |
| Sun Declination | -09°25'03.8" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'09.4" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 22h29m11.4s | |
| Moon Declination | -08°59'49.8" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'30.0" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°00'33.5" | |
| ΔT | 30.0 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.