An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, February 7, 2008,[1] with a magnitude of 0.965. 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 7 days after apogee (January 31, 2008) and 6.9 days before perigee (February 14, 2008), the Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter.
The moon's apparent diameter was 1 arcminute, 17.8 arcseconds (77.8 arcseconds) smaller than the August 1, 2008 total solar eclipse.
This was the first eclipse of the eclipse season, the second being the February 2008 lunar eclipse.
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.
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.[2][3]
Animated path
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.[4]
Partial solar eclipses on June 1, 2011, and November 25, 2011, occur on the next lunar year eclipse set.
Solar saros 121, repeating every about 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours, contains 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on April 25, 944. It contains total eclipses from July 10, 1070, to October 9, 1809. It contains hybrid eclipses on October 20, 1827, and October 30, 1845. It contains annular eclipses from November 11, 1863, to February 28, 2044. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 7, 2206. The longest total eclipse occurred on June 21, 1629, with greatest duration of totality at 6 minutes and 20 seconds. The longest annular eclipse will occur on February 28, 2044, with greatest duration of annularity at 2 minutes and 27 seconds.[5]
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 ascending node.
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