Solar eclipse of March 17, 1904

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Thursday, March 17, 1904,   with a magnitude of 0.9367. 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.

The path of annularity covered southern German East Africa (now southern Tanzania), northeastern tip of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), northern Grande Comore Island in French Comoros (now Comoros), southern British Seychelles (now Seychelles), British Mauritius (now Mauritius), most of the British Indian Ocean Territory (excluding the southern part of Diego Garcia), northwestern Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), southern Siam (now renamed as Thailand), French Indochina (the part now belonging to Cambodia, the southern tip of Laos and southern Vietnam, including the major city Phnom Penh, now capital of Cambodia), all of the Paracel Islands, the northern tip of the American Philippines (now Philippines) and Japanese islands of Iwo Jima, South Iwo Jima and Minamitorishima.

In addition, a partial solar eclipse was seen within a much larger area, including the eastern half of Africa, southern West Asia, southern Afghanistan, South Asia except the northernmost tip of British Raj (now the northernmost tip of Pakistan), most of China except the northwest border, Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia, the extreme northern coast of Australia, northwestern Melanesia, central and western Micronesia, and southeastern Russian Empire.

Observations
N. Donitch of the Royal Russian Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of today's Russian Academy of Sciences) traveled to Phnom Penh (now capital of Cambodia) via Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) in French Indochina and made observations there. The weather was clear on the eclipse day, with only some fog in the morning. Donitch used a spectrometer and recorded changes in the temperature in about 2.5 hours, which dropped for about 3°C.

Eclipses in 1904

 * An annular solar eclipse on March 17, 1904.
 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 31, 1904.
 * A total solar eclipse on September 9, 1904.
 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 24, 1904.

Metonic

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 28, 1900
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 3, 1908

Tzolkinex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 1, 1897
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1911

Half-Saros

 * Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 11, 1895
 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 22, 1913

Tritos

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 16, 1893
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 14, 1915

Solar Saros 128

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 5, 1886
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 28, 1922

Inex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 6, 1875
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 24, 1933

Triad

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 16, 1817
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 15, 1991