An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, October 19, 1865, with a magnitude of 0.9263. 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 9 hours after apogee (on October 19, 1865, at 7:05 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[1]
The path of annularity was visible from parts of modern-day Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, Western Europe, West Africa.
The greatest eclipse was at 16:21:14 UTC (12:21 local time) at 21.3°N 60.2°W northeast of Antigua and Barbuda and lasted 9 min 27 sec. The maximum width of band was 326 km (203 mi).[2]
The eclipse was visible in North America (except for the Yukon, Alaska and the northernmost part of Greenland), Central America, the Caribbean South America including, the northern parts of Peru and Bolivia and most of Brazil, the westernmost parts of Africa and Europe (westernmost Spain and Portugal, Ireland and parts of Scotland). Areas that were in the edge of the eclipse included the Galapagos Islands. In North America, it occurred in the morning, in South America, midday and in Africa and Europe, near the evening hours.[2]
Areas that were inside the umbral portion included the United States such as parts of the north of the state Oregon, Washington Territory (now state), close to the 49th parallel and distant from the Pacific, Idaho, the Cheyenne and the Lakota areas, Nebraska Territory (now state), the states of Kansas, Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, much of Tennessee, the northeast corner of Alabama, parts of the north of Georgia, the west of North Carolina and nearly all of South Carolina. Off the coast of Africa, it included the Cape Verdean Islands of Sotavento and Boa Vista Island, at the time a Portuguese colony. In Africa, it included most of Senegal, at the time a French colony, southern Agawedj (or Agaouedj, now Mauritania) and parts of Mali.
In many parts of Brazil except for the south, it was the third consecutive solar eclipse that took place, all of it appeared as partial, the last two were on October 30, 1864 and April 25, 1865, both with an umbral portion in one part.
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 | 1865 October 19 at 13:25:25.9 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1865 October 19 at 14:37:23.4 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1865 October 19 at 14:41:00.2 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1865 October 19 at 14:44:39.3 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1865 October 19 at 16:03:30.6 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1865 October 19 at 16:21:13.4 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1865 October 19 at 16:26:46.3 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1865 October 19 at 16:27:39.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1865 October 19 at 17:58:00.8 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1865 October 19 at 18:01:39.5 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1865 October 19 at 18:05:15.8 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1865 October 19 at 19:17:08.8 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.92627 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.85798 | |
| Gamma | 0.53659 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 13h37m34.8s | |
| Sun Declination | -10°09'34.2" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'04.2" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 13h38m06.1s | |
| Moon Declination | -09°41'45.0" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'42.0" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°53'56.8" | |
| ΔT | 5.2 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.
The partial solar eclipses on June 27, 1862 and December 21, 1862 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on March 16, 1866 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1862 to 1866 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | ||||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | ||
| 111 | November 21, 1862 Partial | −1.5052 | 116 | May 17, 1863 Partial | 1.0627 | ||
| 121 | November 11, 1863 Annular | −0.8760 | 126 | May 6, 1864 Hybrid | 0.2622 | ||
| 131 | October 30, 1864 Annular | −0.1816 | 136 | April 25, 1865 Total | −0.4826 | ||
| 141 | October 19, 1865 Annular | 0.5366 | 146 | April 15, 1866 Partial | −1.1846 | ||
| 151 | October 8, 1866 Partial | 1.2296 | |||||
All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.
