Annular Solar Eclipse: October 3, 2005

Geographic Region: Europe, Africa, southern Asia
[Annular: Portugal, Spain, Libia, Sudan, Kenya]

The second solar eclipse of 2005 is confined to the Eastern Hemisphere. The track of the annular eclipse crosses the Iberian Peninsula and stretches across the African continent. Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, India and most of Africa will fall within the Moon's penumbral shadow.

The path of the annular eclipse begins in the North Atlantic at 08:41 UT where the Moon's antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms 222 kilometre wide corridor. Rushing southeast, the antumbra quickly reaches the coast of Spain and Portugal (08:51 UT). At this location, the path is 195 kilometres wide and the central duration of the annular phase is 04m 07s. Porto, Portugal lies just outside the southern limit of the central track and will witness a partial eclipse of magnitude 0.943 with the Sun 24° above the horizon. Bisecting the Iberian Peninsula, the antumbra engulfs Madrid (08:56 UT) which lies near the central line. The annular phase will last 04m 11s from this capital city with 90% of the Sun's surface being obscured by the Moon. Along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the city of Valencia also enjoys 03m 38s annular phase at a solar elevation of 32°.

Isla de Ibiza straddles the northern path limit as the shadow crosses the Western Mediterranean. Upon reaching the African continent, Algiers lies within the shadow's trajectory (09:05 UT) and will experience an annularity of 03m 51s with the Sun 36° high. Following a southeastern course, the antumbra passes through southern Tunisia and central Libya where the Moon's umbral shadow will return six months later during the total eclipse of 2006 Mar 29. After briefly skirting through northern Chad, the antumbra sweeps across central Sudan where greatest eclipse occurs at 10:31:42 UT. The annular duration is 4m 31s, the path width is 162 kilometres and the Sun is 71° above the desolate desert landscape.

The central track runs along the southern Sudanese-Ethiopian border before entering northern Kenya where it engulfs much of Lake Rudolf (11:10 UT). The central duration here is still 4m 30s. Southernmost Somalia is the antumbra's final landfall (11:30 UT) before heading across the Indian Ocean where the path ends at local sunset (12:22 UT). During its 3 hour 41 minute flight across our planet, the Moon's antumbra travels about 14,100 kilometres and covers 0.57% of the Earth's surface. Partial phases of the eclipse are visible primarily from Europe, Africa and western Asia.

Eclipse map and predictions courtesy of Fred Espenak - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
For more information on solar and lunar eclipses, see Fred Espenak's Eclipse Home Page:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html