A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Monday, January 14, 1907,[1] with a magnitude of 1.0281. 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 only about 1.2 days after perigee (on January 13, 1906, at 2:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
Totality was visible from Russian Empire (the parts now belonging to Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) and China (now northwestern China, Mongolia and northern part of northeastern China). A partial eclipse was visible for most of Asia.
The Camden Morning Post described its path as such:
The shadow track begins on the banks of the Don, in Southern Russia, where the sun rises as totality is ending. It passes over the northern part of the Caspian Sea, where totality begins at sunrise, ant then over the Aral Sea and through Russian Turkestan, Samarkand being the principal town on the shadow track. Then it passes through the Pamirs and into Central Asia, through the desert of Gobi, ending finally on the River Amur, where totality commences at sunset.
At the time, "some confusion" existed about the date of the event: "the astronomical day begins at noon, the civil day at midnight, twelve hours earlier. Hence, according to the one system the eclipse will occur on Jan. 13, and according to the other on Jan. 14."
The day of the eclipse, it was reported in the Roanoke Times that:
Apart from ground-based observations, the researchers also attempted to perform atmospheric studies with the aid of weather balloons. The Hamburg Observatory sent an expedition to Samarkand, to the south of Tashkent, which was expected to join up with the rest. The expedition from Paris was carried out by the Meudon Observatory, under M. Stefanik, and the British expedition by the British Astronomical Association. According to journalist Mary Proctor, despite the recent construction of railways in the region, an attempt to join one of the expeditions and report on the eclipse from the location of observation had proven fruitless: "The Russian representatives in this country refused to take any responsibility if the writer ventured into Western Turkestan [...] According to information received from the Secretary of State, who lived in China twenty-three years, it would require a month to journey from Peking to Tsair-Osu. The desert of Gobi had to be crossed, and the journey made on horseback, an armed escort being necessary, as this region is also under Russian government."
The Guardian reported that the eclipse was observed by "special scientific expeditions at Samarkand and Tashkent, in Russian Turkestan"; a Reuters correspondent telegraphed from Samarkand that the eclipse had been observed from the railway between the stations of Kuropatkin and Mijulnskaja, as snow fell. Meanwhile, a visit by Afghan amir Habibullah Khan and Lord Kitchener to Agra[3] took place under a "distinct three-quarter eclipse of the sun". On the western edge of the path, the eclipse was observed from Yessentuki.
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.[4]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1907 January 14 at 03:52:57.4 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1907 January 14 at 05:12:27.1 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1907 January 14 at 05:13:31.0 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1907 January 14 at 05:14:35.8 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1907 January 14 at 05:56:57.5 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1907 January 14 at 06:04:51.3 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1907 January 14 at 06:05:43.0 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1907 January 14 at 06:12:01.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1907 January 14 at 06:56:47.3 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1907 January 14 at 06:57:50.7 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1907 January 14 at 06:58:53.2 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1907 January 14 at 08:18:28.4 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.02812 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.05702 | |
| Gamma | 0.86277 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 19h39m03.3s | |
| Sun Declination | -21°29'55.0" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'15.6" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 19h38m47.6s | |
| Moon Declination | -20°37'40.5" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'34.8" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°00'50.9" | |
| ΔT | 6.2 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.