Solar eclipse of February 7, 2008

Solar eclipse of February 7, 2008
Partial from Christchurch, New Zealand
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	-0.957
Magnitude	0.965
Maximum eclipse
Duration	132 sec (2 m 12 s)
Coordinates	67°36′S 150°30′W / 67.6°S 150.5°W
Max. width of band	444 km (276 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	3:56:10
References
Saros	121 (60 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9525

An annular solar eclipse occurred on February 7, 2008. 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.

Visibility

Centrality was visible from parts of Antarctica. A significant partial eclipse was visible over New Zealand and a minor partial eclipse was seen from southeastern Australia.

For most solar eclipses the path of centrality moves eastwards. In this case the path moved west round Antarctica and then north.

Observations

The best land-based visibility outside of Antarctica was from New Zealand. Professional astronomer and eclipse-chaser Jay Pasachoff observed it from Nelson, New Zealand, 60% coverage, under perfect weather.^[1][2]

Images

Animated path

Related ecipses

Solar eclipses 2008–2011

Each member 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.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2008–2011
Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
121 Partial from Christchurch	2008 February 7 Annular		126 Novosibirsk, Russia	2008 August 1 Total
131 Bandar Lampung, Indonesia	2009 January 26 Annular		136 Kurigram, Bangladesh	2009 July 22 Total
141 Bangui, Central African Republic	2010 January 15 Annular		146 Hao, French Polynesia	2010 July 11 Total
151 Partial from Vienna, Austria	2011 January 4 Partial (north)		156	2011 July 1 Partial (south)
Partial solar eclipses on June 1, 2011, and November 25, 2011, occur on the next lunar year eclipse set.

Metonic series

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).

21 eclipse events, progressing from north to south between July 1, 2000 and July 1, 2076
July 1-2	April 19-20	February 5-7	November 24-25	September 12-13
117	119	121	123	125
July 1, 2000	April 19, 2004	February 7, 2008	November 25, 2011	September 13, 2015
127	129	131	133	135
July 2, 2019	April 20, 2023	February 6, 2027	November 25, 2030	September 12, 2034
137	139	141	143	145
July 2, 2038	April 20, 2042	February 5, 2046	November 25, 2049	September 12, 2053
147	149	151	153	155
July 1, 2057	April 20, 2061	February 5, 2065	November 24, 2068	September 12, 2072
157
July 1, 2076

Notes

1. Solar Eclipse in New Zealand, meade4m.com: Advisor/Partner: Jay Pasachoff
2. 2008 Annular Eclipse Professor Jay Pasachoff, Williams College--Hopkins Observatory

References

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• shadowandsubstance.com Annular Eclipse of the Sun animated for February 7, 2008
• Photos of solar eclipse around the world
• Animation: Partial solar eclipse from New Zealand