Total Solar Eclipse:
July 22, 2009
Geographic Region:
eastern Asia, Pacific Ocean,
Hawaii
[Total: India, Nepal, China,
central Pacific Ocean]
To make up for the anemic
lunar eclipse earlier in the
month, a major total eclipse
of the Sun occurs two weeks
later. The path of the
Moon's umbral shadow extends
across India, China, a
handful of Japanese islands
and the South Pacific Ocean.
A partial eclipse is seen
within the much broader path
of the Moon's penumbral
shadow, which includes most
of eastern Asia, Indonesia,
and the Pacific Ocean.
The central path begins in
India's Gulf of Khambhat at
00:53 UT. The Moon passes
through perigee several
hours earlier, so the path
of totality is unusually
wide.
Racing inland, the shadow
sweeps over the Indian
cities of Surat, Indore,
Bhopal, Varanasi, and Pata
as its central duration
heads towards the 4-minute
mark. Traveling across
Bhutan, the umbra clips
Nepal, Bangladesh, and Burma
(Myanmar), before reaching
China at 01:05 UT. The
duration of totality
surpasses 5 minutes in
Sichuan province where its
capital city Chengdu lies
within the track 85 km north
of the central line. The
umbra works its way across
the rest of southern China
where the major cities of
Chongqing, Wuhan and
Hangzhou stand in the
eclipse path.
As the Moon's shadow reaches
the coast, China's largest
city Shanghai (pop. ~19
million) experiences
totality lasting 5 minutes
at 01:39 UT. Around 70 km to
the south, the central line
duration falls just 5
seconds short of the
6-minute mark. Across the
East China Sea, the umbra
sweeps over Japan's Ryukyu
Islands and Iwo Jima.
Greatest eclipse occurs in
the South Pacific at
02:35:19 UT. At this
instant, the axis of the
Moon's shadow passes closest
to Earth's center. The
maximum duration of totality
is 6_minutes 39_seconds, the
Sun's altitude is 86°, and
the path width is 258_km.
The remainder of the path
makes no major landfall; it
arcs southeast through the
Pacific hitting just a
handful of small atolls in
the Marshall Islands and
Kiribati (Gilbert Islands).
The path of totality ends at
04:18 UT as the lunar shadow
leaves Earth and returns to
space 3.4 hours after it
started its trek across our
planet's surface. The 15,200
km long track covers 0.71%
of Earth's surface. A
partial eclipse is seen from
a much larger area covering
East Asia, Indonesia, and
the South Pacific.
This is the 37th
eclipse of Saros 136. The
series began on 1360 Jun 14
with the first of eight
partial eclipses. The first
central eclipse was annular
on 1504 Sep 08. It was
followed by 5 more annular
eclipses before the series
produced 6 hybrid eclipses
from 1612 through 1703. The
first total eclipse occurred
on 1721 Jan 27. The central
line duration of this series
rapidly increased and peaked
at 7 minutes 8 seconds on
1955 Jun 20. Since then, the
duration is slowly
decreasing. Of particular
note is the 6-minute total
eclipse passing through the
central U. S. on 2045 Aug
12. The series will continue
to produce total eclipses
until 2496 May 13. After
that, the family winds down
with a string of 7 partial
eclipses which ends on 2622
Jul 30. In all, Saros 136
produces 15 partial, 6
annular, 6 hybrid and 44
total eclipses.
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
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