Solar eclipse of October 14, 2023

An annular solar eclipse occurred on October 14, 2023.[1][2][3][4][5] 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 or miles wide. Occurring only 4.6 days after apogee (Apogee on October 10, 2023), the Moon's apparent diameter was small.

Solar eclipse of October 14, 2023
Annular Solar Eclipse as viewed within 170 meters (560 feet) of the eclipse centerline and within 1 second of maximum eclipse (Hobbs, New Mexico, USA).
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature Annular
Gamma 0.3753
Magnitude 0.952
Maximum eclipse
Duration 317 s (5 min 17 s)
Coordinates 11°24′N 83°06′W / 11.4°N 83.1°W / 11.4; -83.1
Max. width of band 187 km (116 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse 18:00:41
References
Saros 134 (44 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000) 9560

Visibility edit

 
Animated map of the eclipse's path across North America and South America

United States edit

The path of the eclipse crossed the United States beginning in Oregon, entering at Dunes City, and passing over Newport, Crater Lake National Park, Eugene, and Medford.[6] After passing over the northeast corner of California (in Modoc National Forest), it traveled through Nevada (passing over Black Rock Desert, Winnemucca and Elko) and Utah (passing over Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Bluff).[6] After that, it covered the northeast corner of Arizona (including Kayenta) and the southwest corner of Colorado (including Cortez and the Ute Mountain Reservation).[6] In New Mexico, it passed over Farmington, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell, Hobbs, and Carlsbad.[6] Afterwards, it entered Texas, passing over Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Kerrville, San Antonio and Corpus Christi before entering the Gulf of Mexico.[6] This was the second annular eclipse visible from Albuquerque in 11 years, where it crossed the path of the May 2012 eclipse. It also coincided with the last day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Future total solar eclipses will cross the United States in April 2024 (12 states) (Saros 139, Ascending Node) and August 2045 (10 states) (Saros 136, Descending Node), and an annular solar eclipse will occur in June 2048 (9 states) (Saros 128, Descending Node).

Mexico edit

In Mexico, the eclipse path passed over the Yucatan Peninsula, covering Campeche City in Campeche State, Oxkutzcab in Yucatan State (coming close to Mérida), and Chetumal in Quintana Roo.[6]

Western Caribbean edit

In Western Cuba, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica all saw a partial eclipse (50% and above). The greatest of the partial eclipse was seen over Western Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Central America edit

In Belize, the eclipse passed over Belmopan and Belize City before leaving land again; when it entered in Honduras, it passed over La Ceiba and Catacamas, and in Nicaragua it passed over Bluefields.[6] The point of greatest eclipse occurred near the coast of Nicaragua.[6] After that, in Costa Rica it passed over Limon, and in Panama it passed over Santiago and came close to Panama City. Its point of greatest duration occurred just off the coast of Nata, Panama.[6]

South America and Brazil edit

In South America, the eclipse entered Colombia from the Pacific Ocean and passed over Pereira, Armenia, Cali, Ibagué and Neiva.[6] In Brazil, it passed over the states of Amazonas (covering Fonte Boa, Tefé and Coari), Pará (covering Parauapebas and Xinguara), Tocantins (Araguaína) Maranhão (Balsas), Piauí (Picos), Ceará (Juazeiro do Norte), Pernambuco (Araripina), Paraíba (João Pessoa) and Rio Grande do Norte (Natal) before ending in the Atlantic Ocean.[6]

Galleries edit

Videos and sequences edit

Annularity edit

Partiality edit

Related eclipses edit

Tzolkinex edit

Tritos edit

Half-Saros cycle edit

Solar Saros 134 edit

Inex edit

Triad edit

Eclipses of 2023 edit

Solar eclipses of 2022–2025 edit

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.[7]

Solar eclipse series sets from 2022 to 2025
Ascending node   Descending node
Saros Map Gamma Saros Map Gamma
119
 
Partial from CTIO, Chile
2022 April 30
 
Partial
−1.19008 124
 
Partial from Saratov, Russia
2022 October 25
 
Partial
1.07014
129
 
Total from
East Timor
2023 April 20
 
Hybrid
−0.39515 134
 
Annular from
Campeche, Mexico
2023 October 14
 
Annular
0.37534
139 2024 April 8
 
Total
0.34314 144 2024 October 2
 
Annular
−0.35087
149 2025 March 29
 
Partial
1.04053 154 2025 September 21
 
Partial
−1.06509

Saros 134 edit

It is a part of Saros cycle 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 22, 1248. It contains total eclipses from October 9, 1428 through December 24, 1554 and hybrid eclipses from January 3, 1573 through June 27, 1843, and annular eclipses from July 8, 1861 through May 21, 2384. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. The longest duration of totality was 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node.[8]

Series members 32–48 occur between 1801 and 2100:
32 33 34
 
June 6, 1807
 
June 16, 1825
 
June 27, 1843
35 36 37
 
July 8, 1861
 
July 19, 1879
 
July 29, 1897
38 39 40
 
August 10, 1915
 
August 21, 1933
 
September 1, 1951
41 42 43
 
September 11, 1969
 
September 23, 1987
 
October 3, 2005
44 45 46
 
October 14, 2023
 
October 25, 2041
 
November 5, 2059
47 48
 
November 15, 2077
 
November 27, 2095

Inex series edit

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.

Tritos series edit

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Metonic series edit

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 descending node.[9]

Octon series with 21 events between May 21, 1993 and August 2, 2065
May 20–21 March 8–9 December 25–26 October 13–14 August 1–2
98 100 102 104 106
May 21, 1955 March 9, 1959 December 26, 1962 October 14, 1966 August 2, 1970
108 110 112 114 116
May 21, 1974 March 9, 1978 December 26, 1981 October 14, 1985 August 1, 1989
118 120 122 124 126
 
May 21, 1993
 
March 9, 1997
 
December 25, 2000
 
October 14, 2004
 
August 1, 2008
128 130 132 134 136
 
May 20, 2012
 
March 9, 2016
 
December 26, 2019
 
October 14, 2023
 
August 2, 2027
138 140 142 144 146
 
May 21, 2031
 
March 9, 2035
 
December 26, 2038
 
October 14, 2042
 
August 2, 2046
148 150 152 154 156
 
May 20, 2050
 
March 9, 2054
 
December 26, 2057
 
October 13, 2061
 
August 2, 2065
158 160 162 164 166
 
May 20, 2069
March 8, 2073 December 26, 2076 October 13, 2080 August 1, 2084

Citizen science edit

During the annular and total eclipses of 2023 and 2024, the GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) through the GLOBE Observer app will seek to collect information on air temperature, clouds, and wind. During the 2017 eclipse, citizen scientists contributed with over 80,000 observations of air temperature and 20,000 cloud observations.[10][11]

References edit

  1. ^ Wall, Mike (October 18, 2023). "NASA astronaut snaps photo of solar eclipse from the space station". Space.com.
  2. ^ Bowman, Emma (October 14, 2023). "Scenes from the rare 'ring of fire' eclipse". NPR.
  3. ^ "A Solar Eclipse Leaves Its Mark Across a Hemisphere". October 14, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
  4. ^ "PHOTOS: Rare 'ring of fire' eclipse moves across the Americas, stretching from Oregon to Brazil". PBS NewsHour. October 14, 2023.
  5. ^ "Satellite image captures moon's shadow over U.S. during solar eclipse - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. October 18, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "NASA - Annular Solar Eclipse of 2023 Oct 14". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 134". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.
  9. ^ Note S1: Eclipses & Predictions in Freeth, Tony (2014). "Eclipse Prediction on the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculating Machine Known as the Antikythera Mechanism". PLOS ONE. 9 (7): e103275. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j3275F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0103275. PMC 4116162. PMID 25075747.
  10. ^ "GLOBE Observer Eclipse". GLOBE Program Eclipse.
  11. ^ "Taking observations with Globe Observer Eclipse app". Globe Observer Taking observations with the Eclipse app.

External links edit