Solar eclipse of April 29, 2014


An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Tuesday, April 29, 2014, with a magnitude of 0.9868. 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. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.2 days after perigee and 7.2 days before apogee.
This eclipse's gamma value was closer to 1 than any other eclipse from 2000 B.C. to 3000 A.D. This means the center of the Moon's shadow passed almost exactly at the surface of the Earth, barely missing the Antarctic continent by a few kilometers, but an annular eclipse was visible from a small part of Antarctica, and a partial eclipse was visible from parts of Antarctica and Australia.

Images

Animation of eclipse path

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
EventTime
First Penumbral External Contact2014 April 29 at 03:53:46.0 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction2014 April 29 at 05:38:58.2 UTC
First Umbral External Contact2014 April 29 at 05:58:45.6 UTC
Greatest Eclipse2014 April 29 at 06:04:32.9 UTC
Last Umbral Internal Contact2014 April 29 at 06:10:41.3 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction2014 April 29 at 06:15:28.3 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact2014 April 29 at 08:15:37.1 UTC

ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.98679
Eclipse Obscuration-
Gamma-0.99996
Sun Right Ascension02h25m52.9s
Sun Declination+14°26'54.2"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'52.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.7"
Moon Right Ascension02h26m46.0s
Moon Declination+13°31'06.8"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'38.4"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°57'24.1"
ΔT67.3 s

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.
April 15
Ascending node
April 29
Descending node
Total lunar eclipse
Lunar Saros 122		Annular solar eclipse
Solar Saros 148

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2014

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 148

Inex

Triad