Solar eclipse of April 3, 1848

71°48′S 89°00′W / 71.8°S 89°W / -71.8; -89Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse22:49:07ReferencesSaros146 (18 of 76)Catalog # (SE5000)9158

A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Monday, April 3 and Tuesday, April 4, 1848, with a magnitude of 0.5834. 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.

This eclipse was the second of four partial solar eclipses in 1848, with the others occurring on March 5, August 28 and September 27.

The eclipse was visible in the Pacific Ocean and included the northeast and northwestern Antarctica especially a part of the west of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The eclipse started at sunrise offshore from Antarctica where the Indian and the Pacific Ocean divide and ended at sunset in the peninsula and offshore from Chile.

It showed about up to 15-30% obscuration in northern Antarctica within the 180th meridian, and from 48% to 58% obscuration in the peninsular portion.

10% obscurity in northern Antarctica and 20% at the Antarctic peninsula. The greatest eclipse was at the Antarctic Peninsula at 71.8 S, 89 W at 22:49 UTC (4:49 PM local time).^[1]

The subsolar marking was north of the 5th parallel north in the Pacific around 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.^[2]

April 3, 1848 Solar Eclipse Times

Event	Time (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact	1848 April 03 at 21:14:32.9 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction	1848 April 03 at 22:09:39.8 UTC
Greatest Eclipse	1848 April 03 at 22:49:06.4 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction	1848 April 03 at 23:01:13.0 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact	1848 April 04 at 00:23:57.4 UTC

April 3, 1848 Solar Eclipse Parameters

Parameter	Value
Eclipse Magnitude	0.58339
Eclipse Obscuration	0.49152
Gamma	−1.22641
Sun Right Ascension	00h52m39.7s
Sun Declination	+05°38'38.8"
Sun Semi-Diameter	15'58.8"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	08.8"
Moon Right Ascension	00h54m09.3s
Moon Declination	+04°27'04.6"
Moon Semi-Diameter	16'41.7"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax	1°01'16.4"
ΔT	6.7 s

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 March–April 1848

March 5 Descending node (new moon)	March 19 Ascending node (full moon)	April 3 Descending node (new moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 108	Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 120	Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 146

• A partial solar eclipse on March 5.
• A total lunar eclipse on March 19.
• A partial solar eclipse on April 3.
• A partial solar eclipse on August 28.
• A total lunar eclipse on September 13.
• A partial solar eclipse on September 27.

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 16, 1844
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 21, 1852

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 21, 1841
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 16, 1855

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 30, 1839
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 9, 1857

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 4, 1837
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 4, 1859

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 24, 1830
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 15, 1866

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 24, 1819
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 15, 1877

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 3, 1761
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 3, 1935

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.^[3]

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

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 146, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 76 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on September 19, 1541. It contains total eclipses from May 29, 1938 through October 7, 2154; hybrid eclipses from October 17, 2172 through November 20, 2226; and annular eclipses from November 30, 2244 through August 10, 2659. The series ends at member 76 as a partial eclipse on December 29, 2893. 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 26 at 5 minutes, 21 seconds on June 30, 1992, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 63 at 3 minutes, 30 seconds on August 10, 2659. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[4]

Series members 16–37 occur between 1801 and 2200:
16	17	18
March 13, 1812	March 24, 1830	April 3, 1848
19	20	21
April 15, 1866	April 25, 1884	May 7, 1902
22	23	24
May 18, 1920	May 29, 1938	June 8, 1956
25	26	27
June 20, 1974	June 30, 1992	July 11, 2010
28	29	30
July 22, 2028	August 2, 2046	August 12, 2064
31	32	33
August 24, 2082	September 4, 2100	September 15, 2118
34	35	36
September 26, 2136	October 7, 2154	October 17, 2172
37
October 29, 2190

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 descending node.

24 eclipse events between August 28, 1802 and August 28, 1859
August 27–28	June 16	April 3–4	January 20–21	November 9
122	124	126	128	130
August 28, 1802	June 16, 1806	April 4, 1810	January 21, 1814	November 9, 1817
132	134	136	138	140
August 27, 1821	June 16, 1825	April 3, 1829	January 20, 1833	November 9, 1836
142	144	146	148	150
August 27, 1840	June 16, 1844	April 3, 1848	January 21, 1852	November 9, 1855
152
August 28, 1859

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 1946
August 5, 1804 (Saros 142)	July 6, 1815 (Saros 143)	June 5, 1826 (Saros 144)	May 4, 1837 (Saros 145)	April 3, 1848 (Saros 146)
March 4, 1859 (Saros 147)	January 31, 1870 (Saros 148)	December 31, 1880 (Saros 149)	December 1, 1891 (Saros 150)	October 31, 1902 (Saros 151)
September 30, 1913 (Saros 152)	August 30, 1924 (Saros 153)	July 30, 1935 (Saros 154)	June 29, 1946 (Saros 155)

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
April 24, 1819 (Saros 145)	April 3, 1848 (Saros 146)	March 15, 1877 (Saros 147)
February 23, 1906 (Saros 148)	February 3, 1935 (Saros 149)	January 14, 1964 (Saros 150)
December 24, 1992 (Saros 151)	December 4, 2021 (Saros 152)	November 14, 2050 (Saros 153)
October 24, 2079 (Saros 154)	October 5, 2108 (Saros 155)	September 15, 2137 (Saros 156)
August 25, 2166 (Saros 157)	August 5, 2195 (Saros 158)

• List of solar eclipses in the 19th century

• Google interactive maps
• Solar eclipse data