Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010
21st-century annular solar eclipse / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Friday, January 15, 2010,[1][2][3] with a magnitude of 0.919. 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. Occurring about 1.75 days before apogee (on January 17, 2010, at 1:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[4]
Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 | |
---|---|
Type of eclipse | |
Nature | Annular |
Gamma | 0.4002 |
Magnitude | 0.919 |
Maximum eclipse | |
Duration | 668 s (11 min 8 s) |
Coordinates | 1.6°N 69.3°E / 1.6; 69.3 |
Max. width of band | 333 km (207 mi) |
Times (UTC) | |
(P1) Partial begin | 4:05:28 |
(U1) Total begin | 5:13:55 |
Greatest eclipse | 7:07:39 |
(U4) Total end | 8:59:04 |
(P4) Partial end | 10:07:35 |
References | |
Saros | 141 (23 of 70) |
Catalog # (SE5000) | 9529 |
This was the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium,[5] and the longest until December 23, 3043, with the length of maximum eclipse of 11 minutes, 7.8 seconds, and the longest duration of 11 minutes, 10.7 seconds.[6] This is about 4 minutes longer than total solar eclipses could ever get. (The solar eclipse of January 4, 1992, was longer, at 11 minutes, 40.9 seconds, occurring in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.)[7]
It was seen as an annular eclipse within a narrow stretch of 300 km (190 mi) width across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), Sri Lanka and parts of Bangladesh, Burma and China. The eclipse was visible as only a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.