Solar eclipse of March 7, 1951

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, March 7, 1951, with a magnitude of 0.9896. 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. Annularity was visible from New Zealand on March 8 (Thursday), and northern Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and San Andrés Island in Colombia on March 7 (Wednesday).

Broadcast
This was the first solar eclipse in the world broadcast live on television. American stations such as WCBS-TV, WNET, and NBC News broadcast it live. The path of annularity did not pass the United States of America, and only a partial solar eclipse was visible from the southeastern half of the country. For example, in New York City, a partial solar eclipse occurred right before the sunset, whose gratitude (ratio of diameter covered by the moon) was only 17%, meaning only 8% of the total disk area was covered at the peak of the eclipse. The curator of the Hayden Planetarium in New York also asked "don’t get people too excited about it" in an interview with The New York Times, but many TV stations still incorporated the solar eclipse into their regular afternoon schedule and also some new TV technology was inaugurated.

Eclipses in 1951

 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 21, 1951.
 * An annular solar eclipse on March 7, 1951.
 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 23, 1951.
 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 17, 1951.
 * An annular solar eclipse on September 1, 1951.
 * A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 15, 1951.

Metonic

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 20, 1947
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of December 25, 1954

Tzolkinex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of January 25, 1944
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 19, 1958

Half-Saros

 * Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 1942
 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of March 13, 1960

Tritos

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 7, 1940
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 5, 1962

Solar Saros 129

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 24, 1933
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1969

Inex

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 28, 1922
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1980

Triad

 * Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 6, 1864
 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 5, 2038