An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Tuesday, February 24 and Wednesday, February 25, 1914, with a magnitude of 0.9248. 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 3.3 days before apogee (on February 28, 1914, at 9:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
It took place almost entirely over the Southern Ocean, near Antarctica; at its widest, the shadow cast by the moon was wide. As a result, it could be seen from small patches of land, most notably southern Patagonia and part of New Zealand. Due to this limited visibility, the Star-Gazette of Elmira said that for readers in the United States it was "not particularly interesting from a popular perspective"; the Salina Daily Union in Salina, Kansas said that "you perhaps didn't notice it". It was the first of four eclipses that occurred during the year 1914. While its path passed over New Zealand, and some attempted to view it in Wellington, it was reported to not have been visible there due to cloud cover.
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.