A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, October 7, 1801, with a magnitude of 0.3505. 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 partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.
The partial solar eclipse was visible for parts of modern-day New Zealand and Antarctica.[1]
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.[2]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1801 October 07 at 18:16:51.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1801 October 07 at 19:42:33.8 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1801 October 07 at 19:57:06.5 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1801 October 07 at 21:04:25.4 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1801 October 07 at 21:07:38.1 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.35050 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.23316 | |
| Gamma | −1.35518 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 12h51m43.2s | |
| Sun Declination | -05°32'55.4" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'01.2" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 12h49m16.8s | |
| Moon Declination | -06°40'26.2" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'27.7" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°56'44.6" | |
| ΔT | 12.8 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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
The partial solar eclipses on [h] occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipses on March 14, 1801 and September 8, 1801 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1798 to 1801 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | |||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | |
| 115 | May 15, 1798 Annular | −0.8744 | 120 | November 8, 1798 Total | 0.8270 | |
| 125 | May 5, 1799 Annular | −0.1310 | 130 | October 28, 1799 Total | 0.1274 | |
| 135 | April 24, 1800 Annular | 0.6125 | 140 | October 18, 1800 Total | −0.5787 | |
| 145 | April 13, 1801 Partial | 1.3152 | 150 | October 7, 1801 Partial | −1.3552 | |
All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.
