Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887

Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887
Solar eclipse of August 19, 1887
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.6312
Magnitude	1.0518
Maximum eclipse
Duration	230 sec (3 m 50 s)
Coordinates	50°36′N 111°54′E / 50.6°N 111.9°E
Max. width of band	221 km (137 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	5:32:05
References
Saros	143 (16 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9251

A total solar eclipse occurred on 19 August 1887. 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. It was visible across Europe, Asia, and Japan.

Observations[]

The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev ascended in a balloon near Moscow to observe this eclipse. The weather in Tver Governorate was cloudy and it was rain at morning, so Mendeleev forced to fly alone. He made some notes at 6:55, 20 minutes after the start, and made some observations of the solar corona. For this flight, the scientist was awarded the medal of the Academy of Aerostatic Meteorology.^[1]

	Partiality at sunrise from Berlin, Germany	Ilya Repin, “The Solar Eclipse of 1887” (“Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev on the aerostat”), 1887.

Russian writer Anton Chekhov published the short story "From the Diary of a Hot-Tempered Man" six weeks before the eclipse passed through Russia. The story includes a major section about the frustrations of a man who is trying to make a great variety of observations during the short interval of totality. In the story the eclipse date is given as 7 August 1887, but this is not an error. This is the correct date on the Julian Calendar, then in force in Russia, which did not convert to the Gregorian calendar until after the establishment of the USSR.

Related eclipses[]

Solar 143[]

It is a part of Saros cycle 143, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 72 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on March 7, 1617 and total event from June 24, 1797 through October 24, 1995. It has hybrid eclipses from November 3, 2013 through December 6, 2067, and annular eclipses from December 16, 2085 through September 16, 2536. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on April 23, 2873. The longest duration of totality was 3 minutes, 50 seconds on August 19, 1887. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s ascending node.

Series members 17–28 occur between 1741 and 2100
8	9	10
May 23, 1743	June 3, 1761	June 14, 1779
11	12	13
June 24, 1797	July 6, 1815	July 17, 1833
14	15	16
July 28, 1851	August 7, 1869	August 19, 1887
17	18	19
August 30, 1905	September 10, 1923	September 21, 1941
20	21	22
October 2, 1959	October 12, 1977	October 24, 1995
23	24	25
November 3, 2013	November 14, 2031	November 25, 2049
26	27	28
December 6, 2067	December 16, 2085