Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919

Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919
Animation of the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919
classification
Type	Total
area	South America , Central America , Africa Total: Chile , Peru , Bolivia , Brazil , Central Africa
Saros cycle	136 (32 of 71)
Gamma value	−0.2955
Greatest eclipse
Duration	6 minutes 51 seconds
place	North Atlantic near Liberia
location	4 ° 24 ′  N , 16 ° 42 ′  W Coordinates: 4 ° 24 ′  N , 16 ° 42 ′  W
time	May 29, 1919 1:08:55 PM   UT
size	1.0719

The total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 is most likely the most famous solar eclipse of the 20th century, as during this the gravitational deflection of light predicted by general relativity was checked and confirmed. The experiments on this were carried out under the direction of Arthur Eddington on the volcanic island of Príncipe off the West African coast. At the end of May, the sun is in the middle of the open star cluster of the Hyades , which was an exceptionally favorable constellation for this experiment.

literature

• McEvoy, JP: Solar Eclipse. The story of a sensational phenomenon. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8270-0372-5
• Dyson, FW, Eddington, AS, Davidson, C .: A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical or Physical Character, Volume 220, pp. 291–333 (1920) ( online , PDF, 2.3 MB)

Web links

• Eclipse path of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 at NASA

One of Eddington's photographs of the 1919 solar eclipse