Solar Eclipses visible in South Africa in the Twentieth Century 93 
CENTRAL PATH OF SOLAR ECLIPSES VISIBLE IN 
SOUTH AFRICA AS TOTAL OR ANNULAR ECLIPSES, 
DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 
By A. W. RoBERTs. 
READ NOVEMBER 29, 1893. 
During the twentieth century there will be thirty-two solar 
eclipses visible in South Africa, in which the amount of the sun’s disc 
obscured will be greater than one-tenth. 
In fourteen of these the amount of eclipse will be greater than one- 
half, and the purpose of the following paper is to give some particulars 
concerning them. Of the fourteen eclipses dealt with, only four are 
central in the Cape Colony : 
Total eclipse, October 1, 1940 ; 
Annular eclipse, January 14, 1945 ; 
Annular eclipse, December 25, 1954 ; 
Annular eclipse, January 25, 1963. 
There are four other eclipses which cross South Africa between the 
Zambesi and Orange Rivers, and accordingly are central north of the 
Colony: 
Annular eclipse, November 22, 1900 ; 
Annular eclipse, March 17, 1923 ; 
Annular eclipse, August 10, 1934 ; 
Annular eclipse, April 18, 1977. 
The central tracks of these eight eclipses are charted down in the 
accompanying map. The unbroken line indicates the path of central 
eclipse. Along this line, or within two or three miles on either side, 
the duration of eclipse—annular or total, as the case may be—will be 
greatest. The dotted lines mark the limits of total or annular eclipse. 
Beyond these limits the eclipse will be a partial one, and the further 
removed a place is from this zone the smaller the eclipse. In comput- 
ing the positions from which the charts are drawn I have to acknow- 
ledge my indebtedness to Oppolzer’s ‘Syzygien-Tafeln fiir den Mond,’ 
Publication der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, No. XVI., and to 
Dr. Mahler’s ‘Die Centralen Sonnenfinsternisse des XX. Jahrhunderts.’ 
An examination of the map indicates, generally, that all the central 
and southern portions of the Transvaal, the whole of the Orange Free 
State, except a tract of country ten miles wide bordering on the Orange 
River, all Griqualand West, Griqualand East, and British Bechuanaland ; 
