title: Solar eclipse of April 19, 1939
text: # Solar eclipse of April 19, 1939
  
  An annular solar eclipse occurred on Wednesday, April 19, 1939. 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.
  
  This annular eclipse is notable in that the path of annularity passed over the North Pole. Land covered in the path include part of Alaska, Canada, and Franz Josef Land, Ushakov Island and Vize Island in the Soviet Union (today's Russia). This was the umbral eclipse number 56 out of 57 of Solar Saros 118, this is the last central solar eclipse, and the penultimate umbral eclipse, with last (ultimate) in 1957.
  
  ## Related eclipses
  
  ### Solar eclipses 1939–1942
  
  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.
  
  Solar eclipse series sets from 1939–1942 :
  
  | Descending node | Descending node | Ascending node | Ascending node |
  | - | - | - | - |
  | Saros | Map | Saros | Map |
  | 118 | April 19, 1939 Annular | 123 | October 12, 1939 Total |
  | 128 | April 7, 1940 Annular | 133 | October 1, 1940 Total |
  | 138 | March 27, 1941 Annular | 143 | September 21, 1941 Total |
  | 148 | March 16, 1942 Partial | 153 | September 10, 1942 Partial |
  | The partial solar eclipse on August 12, 1942 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set. |||||
  
  ### Saros 118
  
  It is a part of Saros cycle 118, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 72 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 24, 803 AD. It contains total eclipses from August 19, 947 AD through October 25, 1650, hybrid eclipses on November 4, 1668, and November 15, 1686, and annular eclipses from November 27, 1704, through April 30, 1957. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on July 15, 2083. The longest duration of total was 6 minutes, 59 seconds on May 16, 1398.
  
  Series members 62–72 occur between 1901 and 2083: :
  
  | 62 | 63 | 64 |
  | - | - | - |
  | Mar 29, 1903 | Apr 8, 1921 | Apr 19, 1939 |
  | 65 | 66 | 67 |
  | Apr 30, 1957 | May 11, 1975 | May 21, 1993 |
  | 68 | 69 | 70 |
  | Jun 1, 2011 | Jun 12, 2029 | Jun 23, 2047 |
  | 71 | 72 |
  | Jul 3, 2065 | Jul 15, 2083 |
  
  ### 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 descending node.
  
  22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011. :
  
  | September 11-12 | June 30-July 1 | April 17-19 | February 4-5 | November 22-23 |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | 114 | 116 | 118 | 120 | 122 |
  | September 12, 1931 | June 30, 1935 | April 19, 1939 | February 4, 1943 | November 23, 1946 |
  | 124 | 126 | 128 | 130 | 132 |
  | September 12, 1950 | June 30, 1954 | April 19, 1958 | February 5, 1962 | November 23, 1965 |
  | 134 | 136 | 138 | 140 | 142 |
  | September 11, 1969 | June 30, 1973 | April 18, 1977 | February 4, 1981 | November 22, 1984 |
  | 144 | 146 | 148 | 150 | 152 |
  | September 11, 1988 | June 30, 1992 | April 17, 1996 | February 5, 2000 | November 23, 2003 |
  | 154 | 156 |
  | September 11, 2007 | July 1, 2011 |
  