A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, April 26, 1892, with a magnitude of 1.0591. 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 13 hours after perigee (on April 26, 1892, at 9:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[1]
The eclipse was visible in many parts of the South Pacific Ocean. Very few portions occurred over land including New Zealand except for Auckland and the northernmost portion of North Island, islands such as the Chatham Islands, Antipodes, Marquesas Tahiti and Tuamotu, the westernmost fringes of the Antarctica including its peninsula and the westernmost areas of South America including most of the Andes Mountains in Chile, westernmost Argentina, much of Peru, the southwesternmost of Colombia and Ecuador especially the Galapagos.[2] It was part of solar saros 117.[3]
The umbral portion which was as far as 414 km (257 mi) and started at the peninsular portion of Antarctica, the rest was in the Pacific Ocean. The greatest occurred in the Pacific Ocean at 42.5 S & 119.4 W at 21:55 UTC (1:55 PM local time) and lasted for over 4 minutes.[2]
The eclipse was up to around 20% obscured in many parts of New Zealand and around 10% in Tahiti.
The eclipse started at sunrise in New Zealand and finished at sunset in South America mainly at a part of the Andes Mountains. The eclipse was obscured by clouds in Dunedin.[4] [5] It was visible from Timaru further north,[6] but was not visible due to clouds on Banks Peninsula.[7] Wellington also experienced heavy cloud cover and the eclipse was thus not visible.[8]
The subsolar marking was at around the 15th parallel north southeast of Hawaii and northeast of the Palmyra Atoll.
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.[9]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1892 April 26 at 19:46:52.2 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1892 April 26 at 21:05:34.5 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1892 April 26 at 21:08:28.4 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1892 April 26 at 21:11:31.1 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1892 April 26 at 21:13:25.5 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1892 April 26 at 21:46:27.2 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1892 April 26 at 21:55:19.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1892 April 26 at 21:56:19.4 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1892 April 26 at 22:39:36.1 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1892 April 26 at 22:42:37.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1892 April 26 at 22:45:30.8 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1892 April 27 at 00:04:06.0 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.05908 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.12164 | |
| Gamma | −0.88695 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 02h18m58.6s | |
| Sun Declination | +13°53'21.2" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'52.8" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 02h20m31.5s | |
| Moon Declination | +13°04'03.8" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'41.6" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°01'15.8" | |
| ΔT | -6.4 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.
| May 11 Descending node (full moon) | ||
| Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 117 | Partial lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 129 |
The partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1895 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1892 to 1895 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 117 | April 26, 1892 Total | −0.8870 | 122 | October 20, 1892 Partial | 1.0286 | |
| 127 | April 16, 1893 Total | −0.1764 | 132 | October 9, 1893 Annular | 0.2866 | |
| 137 | April 6, 1894 Hybrid | 0.5740 | 142 | September 29, 1894 Total | −0.4573 | |
| 147 | March 26, 1895 Partial | 1.3565 | 152 | September 18, 1895 Partial | −1.1469 | |
