A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, May 9, 1929, with a magnitude of 1.0562. 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. Occurring about 1.7 days before perigee (on May 10, 1929, at 21:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Totality was visible from Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia), Federated Malay States (now belonging to Malaysia), Siam (name changed to Thailand later), French Indochina (the part now belonging to Vietnam), Spratly Islands, Philippines, and South Seas Mandate in Japan (the part now belonging to FS Micronesia). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Southeast Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Australia.

A team of British and German scientists observed the total eclipse in Pattani province in southern Siam. King Rama VII and Queen Rambai Barni also visited the observation camp set up by foreign scientists and observed the eclipse together in Pattani. This was the last time that Siam (Thailand) received a large-scale solar eclipse observation team so far. The other teams Thailand received later, including the American team for the total solar eclipse of June 20, 1955 were much smaller.

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.

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The partial solar eclipse on June 17, 1928 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on September 12, 1931 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 127, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 82 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on October 10, 991 AD. It contains total eclipses from May 14, 1352 through August 15, 2091. There are no annular or hybrid eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 82 as a partial eclipse on March 21, 2452. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.