A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Sunday, May 6, and Monday, May 7, 1883, with a magnitude of 1.0634. 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 1.1 days after perigee (on May 5, 1883, at 20:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[1]
The path of totality was visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of eastern Australia, Oceania, Hawaii, Central America, and western South America.
An expedition of American astronomers traveled from Peru to Caroline Island aboard the to observe the total solar eclipse. A French expedition also observed the eclipse from Caroline, and the United States Navy mapped the atoll.[2] Johann Palisa, a member of the expedition, discovered an asteroid later that year which he named Carolina "in remembrance of his visit to [the] island".[3]
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 | 1883 May 06 at 19:21:10.1 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1883 May 06 at 20:18:44.5 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1883 May 06 at 20:20:08.5 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1883 May 06 at 20:21:32.7 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 1883 May 06 at 21:34:45.7 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1883 May 06 at 21:45:09.2 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1883 May 06 at 21:53:48.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1883 May 06 at 21:56:03.6 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1883 May 06 at 21:58:10.3 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 1883 May 06 at 22:13:04.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1883 May 06 at 23:26:12.7 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1883 May 06 at 23:27:35.7 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1883 May 06 at 23:28:58.4 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1883 May 07 at 00:26:34.2 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.06341 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.13085 | |
| Gamma | −0.42503 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 02h54m04.8s | |
| Sun Declination | +16°37'58.2" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'50.7" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 02h54m25.5s | |
| Moon Declination | +16°12'38.1" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'35.5" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°00'53.6" | |
| ΔT | -5.6 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 solar eclipses on January 11, 1880 (total), July 7, 1880 (annular), and December 31, 1880 (partial) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on March 27, 1884 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
| Solar eclipse series sets from 1880 to 1884 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascending node | Descending node | ||||||
| Saros | Map | Gamma | Saros | Map | Gamma | ||
| 111 | December 2, 1880 Partial | −1.5172 | 116 | May 27, 1881 Partial | 1.1345 | ||
| 121 | November 21, 1881 Annular | −0.8931 | 126 | May 17, 1882 Total | 0.3269 | ||
| 131 | November 10, 1882 Annular | −0.2056 | 136 | May 6, 1883 Total | −0.4250 | ||
| 141 | October 30, 1883 Annular | 0.5030 | 146 | April 25, 1884 Partial | −1.1365 | ||
| 151 | October 19, 1884 Partial | 1.1892 | |||||
