Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017

An annular solar eclipse took place on February 26, 2017. 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 only 4.7 days before perigee (Perigee on March 3, 2017), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The moon's apparent diameter was just over 0.7% smaller than the Sun's.

Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017
Map
Type of eclipse
NatureAnnular
Gamma-0.4578
Magnitude0.9922
Maximum eclipse
Duration44 sec (0 m 44 s)
Coordinates34.7°S 31.2°W / -34.7; -31.2
Max. width of band31 km (19 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse14:54:33
References
Saros140 (29 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)9545

February 26 is the 57th day of the year in Gregorian Calendar.

It was visible across southern South America in the morning and ended in south-western Africa at sunset. In Argentina, the best places to see the eclipse were located in the south of the Chubut Province, in the towns of Facundo, Sarmiento and Camarones. Lunar Perigee occurred at about 2017 Mar 03 at 07:41:24.5 UTC, 4.7 days later.

Predictions and additional information

Eclipse characteristics

Eclipse Magnitude: 0.99223

Eclipse Obscuration: 0.98451

Gamma: -0.45780

Saros Series: 140th (29 of 71)

Conjunction times

Greatest Eclipse: 26 Feb 2017 14:53:24.5 UTC (14:54:32.8 TD)

Ecliptic Conjunction: 26 Feb 2017 14:58:23.4 UTC (14:59:31.7 TD)

Equatorial Conjunction: 26 Feb 2017 14:38:46.0 UTC (14:39:54.4 TD)

Geocentric coordinates of sun and moon

Sun right ascension: 22.66

Sun declination: -8.5

Sun diameter: 1938.0 arcseconds

Moon right ascension: 22.66

Moon declination: -8.9

Moon diameter: 1895.6 arcseconds

Geocentric libration of moon

Latitude: 5.1 degrees south

Longitude: 0.6 degrees east

Direction: 336.5 (NNW)

Images

Animation assembled from 3 images acquired by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera.

Eclipses of 2017

Solar eclipses descending node 2015-2018

Tzolkinex

Preceded: Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010

Followed: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

Half-Saros cycle

Preceded: Lunar eclipse of February 21, 2008

Followed: Lunar eclipse of March 3, 2026

Tritos

Preceded: Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006

Followed: Solar eclipse of January 26, 2028

Solar Saros 140

Preceded: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999

Followed: Solar eclipse of March 9, 2035

Inex

Preceded: Solar eclipse of March 18, 1988

Followed: Solar eclipse of February 5, 2046

Triad

Preceded: Solar eclipse of April 28, 1930

Followed: Solar eclipse of December 29, 2103

Solar eclipses 2015–2018

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.[1]

Saros 140

It is a part of Saros cycle 140, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on April 16, 1512. It contains total eclipses from July 21, 1656 through November 9, 1836, hybrid eclipses from November 20, 1854 through December 23, 1908, and annular eclipses from January 3, 1927 through December 7, 2485. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 1, 2774. The longest duration of totality was 4 minutes, 10 seconds on August 12, 1692.

Inex series

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.

Metonic cycle

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.

Notes and references

  1. 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.

References

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