Annular solar eclipse in November 1900
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, November 22, 1900, with a magnitude of 0.9421. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 4.5 days after apogee (on November 17, 1900, at 18:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller. This was also the last solar eclipse of the 19th century.
This eclipse's path traveled east, beginning in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of southern Africa, traversing the continent, and passing through the Indian Ocean before terminating in Australia, in northeast Queensland. Outside the center of its path, the section of the Earth from which it was visible included locations in Africa such as the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Pretoria, and the south end of Madagascar. On the eastern portion of the path, it passed over the southern portion of the Philippine islands.
It appeared in some form over all of Australia, although only partially visible in most of it. It entered near Shark Bay and was partially visible in Adelaide. It was observed clearly from Melbourne, where it was seen "under favorable conditions, the sky being cloudless". Elsewhere in Australia, newspapers reported that it was seen from Rydal and Murrumburrah in New South Wales. An observer in Perth said that it was "distinctly visible", as "the sky was quite clear owing to the dimness of the sun's light. Persons out of doors could not fail to notice the eclipse." The Government Astronomer, W. E. Cooke, said that "in the streets it was observed by numbers of people with the aid of a piece of smoked or neutral tinted glass, and at the Observatory the exact times of commencement and finish were noted with the aid of the large equatorial". 
At the time, it was claimed by Ira D. Hicks that the conjunction would "greatly increase atmospheric, electrical and seismic perturbations during the reactionary period, 21st to 23d". Viewers in Australia were advised to view the Sun through smoked glass, "prepared by holding it over the flame of an ordinary wax candle or vesta". It was expected to be "of little importance to astronomers for scientific purposes, excepting in showing how accurately such events may now be predicted".
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.
Eclipse season.
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.
Related eclipses.
Solar eclipses of 1898–1902.
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.
The solar eclipses on January 22, 1898 (total) and July 18, 1898 (annular) occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on April 8, 1902 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.
Saros 131.
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 1, 1125. It contains total eclipses from March 27, 1522 through May 30, 1612; hybrid eclipses from June 10, 1630 through July 24, 1702; and annular eclipses from August 4, 1720 through June 18, 2243. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on September 2, 2369. 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 28 at 58 seconds on May 30, 1612, and the longest duration of annularity was produced by member 50 at 7 minutes, 54 seconds on January 26, 2009. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.
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.
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.
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.
References.
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