Total Solar Eclipse:
November 13, 2012
Geographic Region:
Australia, New Zealand,
southern Pacific Ocean,
southern South America
[Total: northern Australia,
southern Pacific Ocean]
The second solar eclipse of
2012 occurs at the Moon's
ascending node in central
Libra. The path of the
Moon's umbral shadow crosses
the South Pacific Ocean
where it makes no landfall
except for northern
Australia. The Moon's
penumbral shadow produces a
partial eclipse visible from
a much larger region
covering the South Pacific
(including Australia and New
Zealand), southern South
America, and part of
Antarctica.
The central eclipse path
begins in Australia's Garig
Ganak Barlu National Park in
the Northern Territory about
250 kilometers east of
Darwin at 20:35 UT.
Traveling southeast, the
umbral shadow quickly
crosses the Gulf of
Carpentaria and reaches the
Cape York Peninsula at 20:37
UT.
The first and only populated
region in the path lies
along the east coast of
Queensland. Gateway to
Australia's Great Barrier
Reef, Cairns is about 30
kilometers south of the
central line. Its residents
and visitors will enjoy an
early morning total eclipse
lasting 2 minutes with the
Sun just 14° above the
eastern horizon. Observers
on the central line can eek
out another 5 seconds of
totality, but local weather
conditions will play a far
greater role in choosing a
viewing site than a few
seconds of totality.
After leaving Australia, the
umbral shadow glides over
the ocean, undisturbed by
further landfall for the
remainder of its track.
Greatest eclipse occurs in
the South Pacific at
22:11:48 UT. At this
instant, the axis of the
Moon's shadow passes closest
to Earth's centre. The
maximum duration of totality
is 4 minutes 2 seconds, the
Sun's altitude is 68°, and
the path width is 179
kilometers. Continuing
across the vast South
Pacific, the umbral shadow's
path ends about 800
kilometers west of Chile at
23:48 UT. Over the course of
3.1 hours, the Moon's umbra
travels along a path
approximately 14,500
kilometers long covering
0.46% of Earth's surface
area.
This is the 45th
eclipse of Saros 133 (Espenak
and Meeus, 2006). The series
began on 1219 Jul 13 with
the first of 13 partial
eclipses. The first annular
eclipse was non-central and
occurred on 1435 Nov 20.
Five more annular eclipses
followed until a hybrid
eclipse on 1544 Jan 24.
Subsequent eclipses in the
series have been total with
a steadily increasing
duration of totality until
the peak duration of 6
minutes 50 seconds was
reached on 1850 Aug 07. The
duration of totality has
been decreasing since then.
The remaining 20 total
eclipses will see totality
drop to below 2 minutes. The
series ends with a set of 7
partial eclipses the last of
which occurs on 2499 Sep 05.
In all, Saros 133 produces
12 partial, 6 annular, 1
hybrid, 46 total, and 24
partial eclipses, in that
order.
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://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html
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