Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

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Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009
Solar eclipse animate (2009-Jul-22) .gif
classification
Type total
area East Asia , Pacific , Hawaii
total: India , Nepal , China , Central Pacific
Saros cycle 136 (37 of 71)
Gamma value 0.0696
Greatest eclipse
Duration 6 minutes 39 seconds
place North pacific
location 24 ° 13 '  N , 144 ° 6'  E Coordinates: 24 ° 13 '  N , 144 ° 6'  E
time July 22, 2009 02:35:19   UT
size 1.0799

The total solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 was the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century with a duration of 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds and was only surpassed by an eclipse with a longer total duration in June 2132. The totality zone ran over India and China (including Shanghai ) and moved further out to the Pacific Ocean , where the maximum of the eclipse also occurred. The width of the totality zone was there 259 kilometers. In Shanghai the total duration was about 5 minutes.

In its partial phase, the eclipse could be observed in a large part of Asia . The darkness could not be observed from Europe .

Classification of darkness

Since the moon passed its closest orbit point ( perigee ) on the day before the eclipse and the course of the earth through the point furthest from the sun ( aphelion ) was only 18 days ago, the apparent diameter of the moon was relatively large and that of the sun was quite small, making it one quite a long totality came.

Eclipse of Wuhan seen from

The eclipse belongs to the Saros cycle 136, the eclipses of this series taking place at the descending lunar node were all total and very long in the past century. This series also includes the longest eclipse of the 20th century from June 20, 1955 with a totality of 7 minutes and 8 seconds and the legendary "Mexican solar eclipse" from July 11, 1991 with a totality of 6 minutes and 53 seconds, which is the direct predecessor this darkness is in the Saros cycle. The solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 , during which the gravitational deflection of light predicted by general relativity was checked and confirmed, also belongs to this series.

The following eclipses of this cycle in the 21st century will still be total, but the maximum length of the totality will decrease, but the eclipse of September 14, 2099 will still have a totality of over 5 minutes.

course

Observer in Wuzhen , ten minutes before totality
Totality recorded in Wuzhen

The umbra first hit the earth at 00:51 UT ( Universal Time ) in the Arabian Sea just off the west coast of India . From there the umbra of Surat moved in an easterly direction across the Indian subcontinent and crossed the megacities of Vadodara , Indore , Bhopal , Jabalpur , Varanasi and Patna , where the eclipse could be seen shortly after sunrise. The totality there already lasted a little over three minutes.

The shadow path grazed southeastern Nepal and north Bangladesh , continued over Bhutan and at 01:10 UT grazed the far north of Myanmar before reaching the Tibet Autonomous Region in China . In the course of the following half an hour, the Chinese cities of Chengdu , Chongqing , Wuhan , Hefei , Hangzhou and Shanghai were in the area of ​​total eclipse. In Shanghai, which is a little north of the central line, the total took almost exactly five minutes, but because of heavy rain there was no sun to be seen, but it was a few kilometers south in Wuzhen .

The longest totality that can be seen on land has been reached on the uninhabited volcanic island of Kita-Iwojima

Then the umbra left the mainland and subsequently only touched a few groups of islands. First, the shadow path crossed the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea before it the south of the Japanese island of Kyushu lying Ryukyu Islands reached. About 1200 kilometers further east in the Pacific , the umbra reached the Ogasawara Islands . On the volcanic island of Kita-Iwojima , which belongs to this group of islands, the longest totality that can be seen on land occurred with 6 minutes and 34 seconds.

On the further path of the umbra in a southeasterly direction, the maximum of the eclipse was reached at 2:35 UT at the location 24 ° 13 '  N , 144 ° 6'  E in the Pacific. With a total duration of 6 minutes and 39 seconds on the central line, the width of the totality zone reached almost 259 kilometers here, while the sun was almost perpendicular at 86 ° over the southern horizon.

To the northeast of the Solomon Islands , near the equator , the umbra hit land again at the Marshall and Gilbert Islands . These widely scattered islands and atolls were reached by the umbra between 03:30 UT and 04:00 UT, the maximum totality duration decreased from 5 minutes and 44 seconds to 4 minutes 37 seconds.

The umbra reached the southern hemisphere and just about reached the date line before it left Earth in the middle of the Pacific at 4:17 UT.

literature

  • Hans-Ulrich Keller (Ed.): Kosmos Himmelsjahr 2009 . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-11350-9 .
  • Wolfgang Held: Solar and lunar eclipses . Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-7725-2231-9 .

Web links

Commons : Solar eclipse of July 22nd, 2009  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcatmax/SE2001-3000MaxT.html