Solar eclipse of February 21, 1803

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, February 21, 1803, with a magnitude of 1.0492. 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 18 hours before perigee (on February 22, 1803, at 15:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.^[1]

Solar eclipse of February 21, 1803

Total eclipse
Map
Gamma	−0.0075
Magnitude	1.0492
Maximum eclipse
Duration	249 s (4 min 9 s)
Coordinates	11.1°S 135.9°W / -11.1; -135.9
Max. width of band	163 km (101 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	21:18:46
References
Saros	127 (46 of 82)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9047
← August 28, 1802 August 17, 1803 →

The path of totality was visible from parts of modern-day Norfolk Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, Florida, and the Bahamas. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for parts of eastern Australia, Oceania, North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.^[2]

Eclipse details

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]

February 21, 1803 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1803 February 21 at 18:39:49.4 UTC
First Umbral External Contact	1803 February 21 at 19:34:37.6 UTC
First Central Line	1803 February 21 at 19:35:27.6 UTC
First Umbral Internal Contact	1803 February 21 at 19:36:17.6 UTC
First Penumbral Internal Contact	1803 February 21 at 20:31:05.3 UTC
Greatest Duration	1803 February 21 at 21:14:41.2 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1803 February 21 at 21:18:22.5 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1803 February 21 at 21:18:41.3 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1803 February 21 at 21:18:45.9 UTC
Last Penumbral Internal Contact	1803 February 21 at 22:06:27.3 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact	1803 February 21 at 23:01:13.1 UTC
Last Central Line	1803 February 21 at 23:02:04.1 UTC
Last Umbral External Contact	1803 February 21 at 23:02:55.1 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1803 February 21 at 23:57:40.3 UTC

February 21, 1803 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	1.04920
Eclipse Obscuration	1.10083
Gamma	−0.00747
Sun Right Ascension	22h17m19.4s
Sun Declination	-10°39'01.5"
Sun Semi-Diameter	16'09.6"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.9"
Moon Right Ascension	22h17m20.3s
Moon Declination	-10°39'25.9"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'40.0"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°01'10.2"
ΔT	12.5 s

Eclipse season

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.

Eclipse season of February–March 1803

February 6 Descending node (full moon)	February 21 Ascending node (new moon)	March 8 Descending node (full moon)
Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 101	Total solar eclipse Solar Saros 127	Penumbral lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 139

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1803

• A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 6.
• A total solar eclipse on February 21.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 8.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 3.
• An annular solar eclipse on August 17.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 1.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 5, 1799
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 10, 1806

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 10, 1796
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 4, 1810

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 14, 1794
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of February 27, 1812

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 22, 1792
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 21, 1814

Solar Saros 127

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 9, 1785
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 4, 1821

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 12, 1774
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 1, 1832

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 22, 1716
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 22, 1889

Solar eclipses of 1801–1805

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[4]

The partial solar eclipses on April 13, 1801 and October 7, 1801 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the solar eclipses on January 1, 1805 (partial); June 26, 1805 (partial); and December 21, 1805 (annular) occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 1801 to 1805
Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
107	March 14, 1801 Partial	−1.4434		112	September 8, 1801 Partial	1.4657
117	March 4, 1802 Total	−0.6943		122	August 28, 1802 Annular	0.7569
127	February 21, 1803 Total	−0.0075		132	August 17, 1803 Annular	−0.0048
137	February 11, 1804 Hybrid	0.7053		142	August 5, 1804 Total	−0.7622
147	January 30, 1805 Partial	1.4651		152	July 26, 1805 Partial	−1.4571

Saros 127

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 127, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 82 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on October 10, 991 AD. It contains total eclipses from May 14, 1352 through August 15, 2091. There are no annular or hybrid eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 82 as a partial eclipse on March 21, 2452. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 31 at 5 minutes, 40 seconds on August 30, 1532. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.^[5]

Series members 46–68 occur between 1801 and 2200:
46	47	48
February 21, 1803	March 4, 1821	March 15, 1839
49	50	51
March 25, 1857	April 6, 1875	April 16, 1893
52	53	54
April 28, 1911	May 9, 1929	May 20, 1947
55	56	57
May 30, 1965	June 11, 1983	June 21, 2001
58	59	60
July 2, 2019	July 13, 2037	July 24, 2055
61	62	63
August 3, 2073	August 15, 2091	August 26, 2109
64	65	66
September 6, 2127	September 16, 2145	September 28, 2163
67	68
October 8, 2181	October 19, 2199

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.

24 eclipse events between February 21, 1803 and September 27, 1848
February 21	December 9–10	September 27–28	July 17	May 4–5
127	129	131	133	135
February 21, 1803	December 10, 1806	September 28, 1810	July 17, 1814	May 5, 1818
137	139	141	143	145
February 21, 1822	December 9, 1825	September 28, 1829	July 17, 1833	May 4, 1837
147	149	151
February 21, 1841	December 9, 1844	September 27, 1848

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
February 21, 1803 (Saros 127)	January 21, 1814 (Saros 128)	December 20, 1824 (Saros 129)	November 20, 1835 (Saros 130)	October 20, 1846 (Saros 131)
September 18, 1857 (Saros 132)	August 18, 1868 (Saros 133)	July 19, 1879 (Saros 134)	June 17, 1890 (Saros 135)	May 18, 1901 (Saros 136)
April 17, 1912 (Saros 137)	March 17, 1923 (Saros 138)	February 14, 1934 (Saros 139)	January 14, 1945 (Saros 140)	December 14, 1955 (Saros 141)
November 12, 1966 (Saros 142)	October 12, 1977 (Saros 143)	September 11, 1988 (Saros 144)	August 11, 1999 (Saros 145)	July 11, 2010 (Saros 146)
June 10, 2021 (Saros 147)	May 9, 2032 (Saros 148)	April 9, 2043 (Saros 149)	March 9, 2054 (Saros 150)	February 5, 2065 (Saros 151)
January 6, 2076 (Saros 152)	December 6, 2086 (Saros 153)	November 4, 2097 (Saros 154)	October 5, 2108 (Saros 155)	September 5, 2119 (Saros 156)
August 4, 2130 (Saros 157)	July 3, 2141 (Saros 158)	June 3, 2152 (Saros 159)		April 1, 2174 (Saros 161)

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1801 and 2200
February 21, 1803 (Saros 127)	February 1, 1832 (Saros 128)	January 11, 1861 (Saros 129)
December 22, 1889 (Saros 130)	December 3, 1918 (Saros 131)	November 12, 1947 (Saros 132)
October 23, 1976 (Saros 133)	October 3, 2005 (Saros 134)	September 12, 2034 (Saros 135)
August 24, 2063 (Saros 136)	August 3, 2092 (Saros 137)	July 14, 2121 (Saros 138)
June 25, 2150 (Saros 139)	June 5, 2179 (Saros 140)

See also

• List of solar eclipses in the 19th century
• List of solar eclipses visible from the United States