Solar eclipse of September 10, 1923

A total solar eclipse occurred on September 10, 1923.

Photo of the Eclipse

Solar eclipse of September 10, 1923
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.5149
Magnitude	1.043
Maximum eclipse
Duration	217 sec (3 m 37 s)
Coordinates	34.7°N 121.8°W / 34.7; -121.8
Max. width of band	167 km (104 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	20:47:29
References
Saros	143 (18 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9335

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.

The path of totality started at the southeastern tip of Shiashkotan in Japan (now in Russia) on September 11, and crossed the Pacific Ocean, southwestern California including the whole Channel Islands, northwestern and northern Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, British Honduras (today's Belize), Swan Islands, Honduras, and Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo in Colombia on September 10. The eclipse was over 90% in Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara in the Southern California coast.

At Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California, a large group of scientists gathered to observe the eclipse were foiled by clouds, with the Los Angeles Times saying that "nothing of the eclipse was seen save two glimpses that showed the crescent of the sun, a sickly, white watermelon rind with the wavering black moon and a few rags of black clouds fast blotting out the white light":[1]

All day the scientists from Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, from the University of Wisconsin, from Dearborn University, from Drake University and Carleton College, had rehearsed and rehearsed to the counting of the seconds and there they stood now while the moon covered the sun and the world was dark and still, and though the counter counted there was no possibility of taking pictures; no chance of seeing anything but that gray, blue, purple shadow moving across the sky.[1]

Even as late as 11:30 when the eclipse began, the scientists had hopes. They had come thousands of miles, had worked hard, had spent much money, all for a few minutes of clear sky. They had worked in the sweltering sun for weeks and weeks 1302 feet above the sea. There had not been one monent of one day that was not flooded with sunshine. "And surely," said Prof. Edwin Frost of the University of Chicago, "surely we will have these few minutes today."[1]

In Bakersfield, where the last eclipse of the sun had taken place 123 years earlier, many watched the eclipse from streets, chickens were confused, and "all the astronomical apparatus of Bakersfield" was trained on the eclipse.[2] In New York City the eclipse, while partial, was viewed successfully; in the area of totality, it was "studied by astronomers who [were] depending on it to help them test out Einstein's famous theory of relativity and whether light rays are bent by the attraction of gravity".[3]