A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Thursday, October 30 and Friday, October 31, 1845, with a magnitude of 1.0005. It was a hybrid event, with only a fraction of its path as total, and longer sections at the start and end as an annular eclipse. 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 3.4 days before perigee (on November 3, 1845, at 10:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[1]
The greatest eclipse was in northeasternmost Antarctica south of where the Indian and Pacific Ocean divides at 69.1 S and 144.5 E at 23:51 UTC (9:51 am on October 31), in that portion of Antarctica and the surrounding waters it shown as a total eclipse, the remainder was as an annular, first in the Indian Ocean then in the Antarctic Peninsula.[2]
The eclipse was visible in the islands of Java, Bali, Sunda (the three compromising a part of Indonesia today) and Timor including Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), the Asian islands, almost the whole of Australia with the exception of the Cape York Peninsula, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Macquarrie Islands, New Zealand, Chatham Islands, Antipodes and some remaining small islands.
In Australia, it showed up to 10% obscuration in the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, around 15% in Brisbane, 25–30% in Central Australia, around 40% in Sydney, 50% in Melbourne, around 55% in Tasmania and the Nullarbor Plain and around 60% in Perth, Western Australia. Elsewhere it showed 10% in the north tip of New Zealand's North Island, up to 30% in the area of Wellington, 45% in Otago. and 60% in the Chatham Islands. It was also around 90% in the shores of Western Antarctica and around the 180th meridian.
The rim of the eclipse included the area south of Cairns, Queensland, the Coral Sea and Cook Islands.
The eclipse started at sunrise in Western Australia and finished at sunset in the Antarctic Peninsula and southwest of Patagonia in South America.[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.[3]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1845 October 30 at 21:32:18.1 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1845 October 30 at 22:55:30.0 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1845 October 30 at 22:55:59.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1845 October 30 at 22:55:59.9 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1845 October 30 at 22:56:30.0 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1845 October 30 at 23:42:49.2 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1845 October 30 at 23:51:57.4 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1845 October 31 at 00:13:51.7 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1845 October 31 at 00:47:11.4 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1845 October 31 at 00:47:38.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1845 October 31 at 00:48:06.2 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1845 October 31 at 02:11:21.2 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.00046 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.00092 | |
| Gamma | −0.85375 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 14h20m21.2s | |
| Sun Declination | -14°00'22.1" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'07.2" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 14h19m33.4s | |
| Moon Declination | -14°49'00.4" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'59.8" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°58'42.5" | |
| 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.
The partial solar eclipses on June 16, 1844 and December 9, 1844 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipses on March 5, 1848 and August 28, 1848 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1844 to 1848 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 111 | November 10, 1844 Partial | −1.4902 | 116 | May 6, 1845 Annular | 0.9945 | |
| 121 | October 30, 1845 Hybrid | −0.8538 | 126 | April 25, 1846 Hybrid | 0.2038 | |
| 131 | October 20, 1846 Annular | −0.1506 | 136 | April 15, 1847 Total | −0.5339 | |
| 141 | October 9, 1847 Annular | 0.5774 | 146 | April 3, 1848 Partial | −1.2264 | |
| 151 | September 27, 1848 Partial | 1.2774 | ||||
All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.
