A total

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

occurred at the Moon's

descending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Sunday, May 29, 1938, with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 1.0552. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, 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 The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular separation (in units of angle) describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the '' visual ...

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 about 1.2 days before

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

(on May 30, 1938, at 17:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The path of totality was mostly on the sea. The only land that was covered was

South Orkney Islands The South Orkney Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, as well as

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

except for its northwestern part,

Zavodovski Island Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands, which are located southeast of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. Zavodovski is the northernmost of the South Sandwich ...

and

Visokoi Island Visokoi Island is an uninhabited volcanic island and one the three Traversay Islands that constitute a subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands, in the Southern Ocean. Visokoi consists of one major volcano, Mount Hodson, whose height is usually ...

controlled by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of southern and central

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. This was the first of 41 umbral eclipses of

Solar Saros 146 Saros cycle series 146 for solar eclipses occurs at the Moon's descending lunar node, node, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 76 eclipses, 41 of which are umbral (13 annular, 4 hybrid, and 24 total). The first eclipse of the series wa ...

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 An eclipse season is a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Orbit of the Moon, Moon's orbital plane (orbital inclination, tilted five degrees to the ecliptic, Earth ...

, 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 A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1938

* A total lunar eclipse on May 14. * A total solar eclipse on May 29. * A total lunar eclipse on November 7. * A partial solar eclipse on November 21.

Metonic

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of August 10, 1934 An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Friday, August 10, 1934, with a magnitude of 0.9436. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 16, 1942

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 18, 1931 * Followed by:

Solar eclipse of July 9, 1945 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, July 9, 1945, with a magnitude of 1.018. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Su ...

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of May 23, 1929 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of June 3, 1947

Tritos

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, ascending node of orbit between Tuesday, June 28 and Wednesday, June 29, 1927, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 1.0128. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1949

Solar Saros 146

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of May 18, 1920 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Tuesday, May 18, 1920, with a magnitude of 0.9734. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of t ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 8, 1956

Inex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 17, 1909 * Followed by:

Solar eclipse of May 9, 1967 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's Lunar node, ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, May 9, 1967, with a Magnitude of eclipse, magnitude of 0.7201. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or ...

Triad

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of July 28, 1851 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Monday, July 28, 1851, with a magnitude of 1.0577. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of t ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 29, 2025

Solar eclipses of 1935–1938

Saros 146

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

References

{{Solar eclipses 1938 05 29 1938 in science 1938 05 29 May 1938