An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Thursday, December 2 and Friday, December 3, 1937, with a magnitude of 0.9184. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 18 hours before apogee (on December 3, 1937, at 16:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
The duration of annularity at maximum eclipse (closest to but slightly shorter than the longest duration) was 12 minutes, 0.33 seconds in the Pacific Ocean. It was the longest annular solar eclipse since December 25, 1628, but the Solar eclipse of December 14, 1955 lasted longer.
Annularity was visible from outlying islands in Japan on December 3, including part of Ogasawara Village and South Seas Mandate (the part now belonging to Marshall Islands), and also Teraina and Tabuaeran in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the part now belonging to Kiribati), a colony of the United Kingdom, on December 2. (However, time zone of theàLine Islandsàincluding Teraina and Tabuaeran was changed fromàUTCâÂÂ10àtoàUTC+14àin 1995. The date would be December 3 for all annular eclipse visible from land if observing the present day's time zone.)
A partial eclipse was visible for parts of East Asia, northern Oceania, Hawaii, and western North America. Part of these areas are east of theÃÂ 180th meridian, seeing the eclipse on December 2, and the rest west of the 180th meridian, seeing the eclipse on December 3.
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.
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, 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.