Aug. 31, 1932, Total Solar Eclipse Was Second of Two Solar Eclipses

Summary: The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse was second of two solar eclipses and third of the year's quartet of two lunar and two solar eclipses.

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse details; credit: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC, via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse was second of two solar eclipses and third in the year's lineup of two lunar and two solar eclipses.

The August 1932 total solar eclipse favored the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic Ocean northeast of the Russian high Arctic's Severnaya Zemlya archipelago defined the path of totality's western beginning, according to TheSkyLive.com's map. The narrow path tracked across the Arctic Ocean to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago's then-Northwest Territories (Northwest Territories and Nunavut since April 1, 1999) and included southwestern Quebec in its Canadian passage. For its United States' component, the path of totality traversed New England's northern to east central Vermont, much of Vermont, western Maine, northeastern Massachusetts' Essex County and Cape Cod's Outer Cape.

The path of totality left the North American continent at Cape Cod and proceeded across the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. The path tracked over the area now known (as of Sept. 15, 2016) as Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The Connecticut-size underwater complex of geological features lies about 130 miles east-southeast of Cape Cod and encompasses approximately 4,913 square miles (12,724 square kilometers). The path continued its northeastern cruise, dipping from the North Atlantic's middle latitudes into the northern fringes of its low latitudes. Lift off occurred in the central North Atlantic Ocean, over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge southwest of Portugal's Azores (as of April 30, 1976, Região Autónoma dos Açores), northwest of Portugal's Cape Verde archipelago (as of July 5, 1975, República de Cabo Verde).

The August 1932 solar eclipse's partial eclipse increased its path of varying visibility to include all of North America: Greenland; Canada; the then-48 U.S. states and the United States' Alaska Territory (as of Jan. 3, 1959, 49th U.S. state of Alaska); Mexico and Central America. Continentally, the path of partiality added Asian Russia's Far East; northern South America; and insular Europe's Republic of Ireland's (Poblacht na hÉireann) Mayo and Ulster counties, far northwestern Scotland, Iceland and the Svalbard archipelago. Oceanically, the path of partiality barely skimmed the southeastern Pacific Ocean but included the North Pacific Ocean in an arch from the Russian Far East's Kamchatka Peninsula to the Aleutian Islands and the eastern, island-less waters of the Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago de Colón; Las Islas Galápagos).

Retired NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) astrophysicist Fred Espenak's EclipseWise website notes solar and lunar details of the sun in Leo the Lion constellation and of the moon's reach of perigee 2.9 days after the August 1932 solar eclipse. Lunar perigee (Ancient Greek: περί, perí, “near” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”) took place Saturday, Sept. 3, at 18:46 Coordinated Universal Time (2: 46 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), at a distance of 365,430 kilometers, according to Autodesk Inc. co-founder John Walker's Fourmilab Switzerland website.

The instant of first external contact between the lunar penumbra (shadow's lighter, outer region) and Earth's limb, designated as P1, initiates the partial solar eclipse. This first external penumbral contact took place Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, at 17:44:35.5 UT (1:44 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), according to Fred Espenak's eclipse predictions on the NASA Eclipse Web Site.

The instant of first external contact between the lunar umbra (shadow's dark center) and Earth's limb, designated as U1, starts the total solar eclipse. This first external umbral contact occurred at 19:03:32.0 UT (3:03 p.m. EDT).

Totality defines as a total eclipse's maximum phase, which exhibits complete coverage of the solar disk by the lunar disk. Totality references the first and last internal contacts of the lunar umbra with Earth's limb.

Designated as U2, the instant of first internal contact between the umbra and Earth's limb happened at 19:05:09.8 UT (3:05 p.m. EDT). This first internal umbral contact actually occurs as the second contact overall, as it succeeds the first external umbral contact (U1).

Greatest eclipse designates the instant of closest passage of the lunar shadow cone's axis to Earth's center. The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse's greatest eclipse happened at 20:03:18.0 UT (4:03 p.m. EDT).

Greatest eclipse occurred in Quebec province, on the northeastern shore of James Bay (Baie James), at 54 degrees 27.5 minutes north latitude, 79 degrees 30.4 minutes west longitude. James Bay is the southern arm of Hudson Bay. The path of totality at greatest eclipse had a width of 154.5 kilometers. The duration at greatest eclipse was 1 minute 44.7 seconds.

The moon's geocentric coordinates at greatest eclipse were right ascension of 10 hours 40 minutes 49.4 seconds and declination of plus 9 degrees 14 arcminutes 00.5 arcseconds. The sun's geocentric coordinates were right ascension of 10 hours 39 minutes 17.5 seconds and declination of plus 8 degrees 30 arcminutes 34.8 arcseconds.

Designated as U3, the instant of last internal contact between the umbra and Earth's limb took place at 21:01:52.4 UT (5:01 p.m. EDT). This last internal umbral contact numbers as the second and last internal umbral contact and the third of the four contacts (two internal, two external) overall between the umbra and Earth's limb.

The total solar eclipse terminates at the instant of last external contact between the umbra and Earth's limb, designated as U4. This last external umbral contact constitutes the fourth and last of the four contacts overall between the umbra and Earth's limb. The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse ended at 21:03:34.8 UT (5:03 p.m. EDT).

The partial solar eclipse ends with the instant of last external contact of the lunar penumbra with Earth's limb, designated as P4. For the Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, solar eclipse, this last external penumbral contact occurred at 22:22:14.1 UT (6:22 p.m. EDT).

The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, solar event's partial eclipse lasted for 4 hours, 37 minutes, 39 seconds, from 17:44:35.5 to 22:22:14.1 UT (1:44 p.m. to 6:22 p.m. EDT). The August 1932 solar event's total eclipse had a duration of 2 hours, 2 seconds, from 19:03:32.0 to 21:03:34.8 UT (3:03 p.m. to 5:03 p.m. EDT).

The Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse provided critical information for American physicist and radio engineer Karl Guthe Jansky (Oct. 22, 1905-Feb. 14, 1950) in his pioneering studies that culminated in discovering extrasolar radio waves as the source of interference with ship-to-shore and other types of telecommunications. If solar radio emissions were causing the interference, wave intensity should have decreased during the August 1932 solar eclipse. The absence of decreased intensity convinced Jansky to dismiss the sun as the interfering source. In 1933 he published his groundbreaking findings, in which he identified the interferer as extrasolar radio waves originating in Sagittarius the Archer constellation.

The August 1932 total solar eclipse numbered as the second of two 1932 solar eclipses and as the third of the year's quartet of two lunar and two solar eclipses. The year's first solar eclipse, which had taken place Monday, March 7, 1932, as an annular solar eclipse, had opened the year's eclipse quartet as the first eclipse of 1932. A partial lunar eclipse on Tuesday, March 22, succeeded the opening eclipse. The year's second partial lunar eclipse succeeded August's total solar eclipse on Wednesday, Sept. 14, and closed the year's eclipse lineup.

The takeaways for the Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse are that it was the second of two 1932 solar eclipses; that the path of totality favored the Northern Hemisphere, especially the Arctic, Canada's Northwest Territories (now Northwest Territories and Nunavut) and Quebec, four of the United States' six New England states and the western and central North Atlantic Ocean; and that American physicist and radio engineer Karl Jansky's research during the eclipse influenced his accurate dismissal of solar radio emissions and ultimate correct discernment of extrasolar radio waves as sources of interference with Earth-based telecommunications.

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse's Northern Hemisphere path of totality and Northern Hemisphere-Southern Hemisphere path of partiality: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC, via NASA Eclipse Web Site

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse details; credit: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC, via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot1901/SE1932Aug31T.GIF

Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1932, total solar eclipse's Northern Hemisphere path of totality and Northern Hemisphere-Southern Hemisphere path of partiality: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC, via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCSEmap/1901-2000/1932-08-31.gif

For further information:

Espenak, Fred. "Total 1932 Aug 31." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipse Catalogs > Saros Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 0 to 180 > Summary of Saros Series 100 to 125 > Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 124.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCSEmap/1901-2000/1932-08-31.gif

Espenak, Fred. "Total Solar Eclipse of 1932 Aug 31." EclipseWise > Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipse Links > Decade Pages of Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipses: 1931-1940.
Available @ http://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/1901-2000/SE1932Aug31Tprime.html

Espenak, Fred. "Total Solar Eclipse of 1932 Aug 31." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipses: 1931-1940.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot1901/SE1932Aug31T.GIF

Finley, Dave. "Iconic Telescope Renamed to Honor Founder of Radio Astronomy." National Radio Astronomy Observatory NRAO > News Center > Press Release Archive. Jan. 10, 2012.
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Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2005ASPC..345....3J

Jansky, Karl G. "Electrical Disturbances Apparently of Extraterrestrial Origin." Proceedings of the I.R.E. (Institute of Radio Engineers), vol. 21, issue 10 (October 1933): 1387–1398. DOI: 10.1109/JRPROC.1933.227458.
Available via IEEE Xplore @ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1685232

Jansky, Karl G. "Electrical Phenomena That Apparently Are of Interstellar Origin." Popular Astronomy, vol. XLI, no. 10, whole no. 410 (December 1933): 548-555.
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1933PA.....41..548J
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1933PA.....41..548J%3C

Jansky, Karl G. "Radio Waves From Outside the Solar System." Nature, vol. 132, issue 3323 (July 8, 1933): 66.
Available via Nature @ https://www.nature.com/articles/132066a0

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Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/PA.../0040//0000398.000.html
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1932PA.....40..379

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Available @ https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/karl-guthe-jansky/

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Available @ https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/karl-jansky-and-his-merrygoround/

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Available @ https://theskylive.com/solar-eclipse?id=1932-08-31

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Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/1932-august-31

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