A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, August 9, 1896, with a magnitude of 1.0392. 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 about 2.5 days before perigee (on August 11, 1896, at 18:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[1]
The path of totality was visible from parts of northern Norway, northern Sweden, the Russian Empire, and the Empire of Japan. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for much of Europe, Central Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Alaska, and Greenland.
This event was the subject of the first organized eclipse expedition by the British Astronomical Association. A group of 165 amateur and professional astronomers sailed from Tilbury, England on July 25, heading toward Vadsø, Norway.[2] This expedition failed to produce any usable results as they were frustrated by the weather conditions at the time of the eclipse.[3] However, a smaller expedition to Novaya Zemlya on Sir George Baden-Powell's yacht Otario met with success.[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.[4]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1896 August 09 at 02:43:20.8 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1896 August 09 at 03:52:06.8 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1896 August 09 at 03:53:08.3 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1896 August 09 at 03:54:10.1 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1896 August 09 at 04:37:13.0 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1896 August 09 at 05:01:41.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1896 August 09 at 05:08:37.2 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1896 August 09 at 05:09:00.1 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1896 August 09 at 06:24:07.8 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1896 August 09 at 06:25:11.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1896 August 09 at 06:26:15.3 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1896 August 09 at 07:34:47.9 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.03918 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.07989 | |
| Gamma | 0.69635 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 09h18m02.6s | |
| Sun Declination | +15°44'00.4" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'46.9" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 09h19m10.6s | |
| Moon Declination | +16°21'57.5" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'12.5" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°59'29.1" | |
| ΔT | -5.8 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.
| August 23 Ascending node (full moon) | ||
| Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 124 | Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 136 |
The partial solar eclipses on March 26, 1895 and September 18, 1895 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on December 13, 1898 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1895 to 1899 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descending node | Ascending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 114 | August 20, 1895 Partial | 1.3911 | 119 | February 13, 1896 Annular | −0.9220 | |
| 124 | August 9, 1896 Total | 0.6964 | 129 | February 1, 1897 Annular | −0.1903 | |
| 134 | July 29, 1897 Annular | −0.0640 | 139 | January 22, 1898 Total | 0.5079 | |
| 144 | July 18, 1898 Annular | −0.8546 | 149 | January 11, 1899 Partial | 1.1558 | |
