Solar eclipse of June 21, 2020

An annular solar eclipse occurred on June 21, 2020. 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.

Solar eclipse of June 21, 2020
Annularity as seen from Beigang, Yunlin, Taiwan
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma0.1209
Magnitude0.994
Maximum eclipse
Duration38 sec (0 m 38 s)
Coordinates30.5°N 79.7°E / 30.5; 79.7
Max. width of band21 km (13 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse6:41:15
References
Saros137 (36 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)9553

This solar eclipse occurred one lunar year after the July 2, 2019 eclipse.

Visibility

Eclipse progression at the annular stage, seen from Minxiong, Chiayi, Taiwan

The central path of this annular eclipse passed through parts of Central and Eastern Africa, including Congo Republic, DR Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti; the southern Arabian Peninsula, including Yemen, Oman, and southern Saudi Arabia; parts of South Asia and the Himalayas, including southern Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, and Tibet; parts of East Asia, including South China and Taiwan, and part of Micronesia, including Guam.[1] A partial eclipse was visible throughout much of the rest of Africa, southeastern Europe, most of Asia (except the north part of Siberia and most of the island of Java), and in New Guinea and the north of Australia just before sunset. In Europe, the partial eclipse was visible for places southeast of the line roughly passing through Perugia, Miskolc, Lviv, and Yaroslavl.[1]

For Oman and India, it was the second annular eclipse 6 months after the December 2019 eclipse.[2]

Images

Animation from Himawari 8 showing the Moon's shadow moving across the Earth.

Eclipses of 2020

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros cycle

Tritos

Solar Saros 137

Inex

Triad

  • Followed: Solar eclipse of April 23, 2107

Solar eclipses of 2018–2021

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.[3]

Note: Partial solar eclipses on February 15, 2018, and August 11, 2018, occurred during the previous semester series.

Saros 137

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 (973.62 years).

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings. In the 18th century:

  • Solar Saros 127: Total Solar Eclipse of 1731 Jan 08
  • Solar Saros 128: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1759 Dec 19
  • Solar Saros 129: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1788 Nov 27

In the 23rd century:

  • Solar Saros 144: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2223 Feb 01
  • Solar Saros 145: Total Solar Eclipse of 2252 Jan 12
  • Solar Saros 146: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2280 Dec 22

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.

Notes

  1. "Annular Solar Eclipse on June 21, 2020". www.timeanddate.com. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  2. World Atlas of Solar Eclipse Paths
  3. van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.

References

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