Some trivia about small and large eclipses

Updated: 31 October 2007

Usually a Saros series starts and end with a small or even tiny partial solar eclipse that is part of a duo eclipse. The question then can be asked: what is the smallest partial solar eclipse that is not part of a duo, and what is the smallest eclipse that is not the first or last of a Saros series.

The smalled ecllipse not at the start or end of a Saros series happend on 24 December 1916. The magnitude was 0.0114. It was followed one Saros period later by the tiny partial solar eclipse of 5 January 1935 with magnitude 0.0013 (number 5 in top-10 of tiniest eclipses)

The smallest eclipse between -2000 and 300 that is not part of a duo will happen on 9 February 2912 and the magnitude will be 0.1542.  The table belows lists the 7 partial eclipses smaller than 0.2 that are not part of a duo. It is remarkable that Saros 70 and 184 each have 3 of these rare partials.

Date

Saros

Magnitude

2912

Feb

9

184

0.1542

531

Nov

24

70

0.1697

2930

Feb

19

184

0.1719

513

Nov

13

70

0.1770

495

Nov

3

70

0.1912

1193

Nov

25

129

0.1954

2948

Mar

2

184

0.1967

The top-10 of tiniest eclipses is given below:
Date Saros Magnitude
-1838 Apr 4 -10 0.00002
1512 Apr 16 140 0.0003
1639 Jan 4 145 0.0009
2883 Aug 23 188 0.0010
1935 Jan 5 111 0.0013
1175 Oct 16 91 0.0019
2893 Dec 29 146 0.0028
662 Jun 21 115 0.0030
2995 Aug 17 190 0.0036
2904 Jun 5 142 0.0040

The table belows list the partial eclipses that are almost total, magitude > 0.99

Date

Saros

Magnitude

-1585

Mar

28

33

0.9960

-1577

Mar

30

4

0.9998

-1451

Jul

12

42

0.9944

-945

Oct

24

57

0.9903

-944

Sep

14

29

0.9987

-927

Nov

4

57

0.9990

-224

Jan

12

47

0.9932

-196

Feb

1

76

0.9924

-18

Jun

10

56

0.9954

257

Aug

26

68

0.9969

343

Feb

11

94

0.9909

513

Jun

19

103

0.9908

654

May

22

106

0.9990

824

Sep

26

115

0.9929

900

Mar

4

112

0.9933

1389

Apr

26

99

0.9944

1399

May

6

128

0.9949

1750

Jul

3

142

0.9956

2326

Jun

30

132

0.9931

2572

Apr

13

138

0.9902

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