A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of the orbit on Wednesday, April 17, 1912. It is a hybrid event, starting and ending as an annular eclipse, with only a small portion of totality. 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. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Annularity was first visible from southeastern tip of Venezuela, northern tip of Brazil, British Guyana, Dutch Guiana and Porto Santo Island in Madeira, Portugal, then totality from Portugal and Spain, with annularity continued northeast across France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Russian Empire. Occurring 7.4 days after apogee and only 5.5 days before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. It was the 30th eclipse of the 137th Saros cycle, which began with a partial eclipse on May 25, 1389 and will conclude with a partial eclipse on June 28, 2633. This eclipse occurred two days after the RMS Titanicsank in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean under the darkness of new moon.
It is a part of Saros cycle 137, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 25, 1389. It contains total eclipses from August 20, 1533 through December 6, 1695, first set of hybrid eclipses from December 17, 1713 through February 11, 1804, first set of annular eclipses from February 21, 1822 through March 25, 1876, second set of hybrid eclipses from April 6, 1894 through April 28, 1930, and second set of annular eclipses from May 9, 1948 through April 13, 2507. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 28, 2633. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 55 seconds on September 10, 1569. Solar Saros 137 has 55 umbral eclipses from August 20, 1533 through April 13, 2507. That's almost 1 millennium!
