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The Annular Solar Eclipse of December 26th, 2019

CAUTION! OBSERVING A SUN ECLIPSE IS DANGEROUS AND MAY CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE EYE DAMAGE, UP TO BLINDNESS, ANNULAR AND PARTIAL ECLIPSES INCLUDED! Observing a Sun eclipse necessitates DEDICATED SAFE TECHNIQUES!

That last solar eclipse in 2019 -- and the last major astronomical event this year -- is a annular eclipse occurring on December 26th, 2019. A annular eclipse is occurring when the apparent diameter of the Moon is smaller than the one of the Sun, due to the general geometry of the eclipse. A ring of Sun is still visible, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon, as it doesn't provide the observers with the more classical view of the Sun totally hidden and of the corona streaming away. for more about the solar eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial 'Sun Eclipses'. The annular solar eclipse of December 26th, 2019 is occurring from northern Saudi Arabia to the western Pacific ocean. Starting in the northern reaches of Saudi Arabia, the eclipse will then pass in the southern tip of India, and Sri Lanka, then in Indonesia, the southernmost Philippines before heading into the Pacific ocean where it will end (the U.S. island of Guam is also concerned). The eclipse's path at greatest, will be at 73.3 miles (117.9 kilometers) as the greatest eclipse occurs over northern Indonesia by 05:17:43.3 UT. The Sun at that time will be lying then at a 66 degree of altitude and the eclipse lasting 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from Russia, Mongolia and the northern Far East down to from the Horn of Africa to Australia and Papua-New Guinea. The closer the central line, the more indented the Sun like in the Arabian Peninsula, India, Indonesia or Philippines. The background of the total eclipse is Sagittarius, the Archer as the eclipse will reveal Mercury and Saturn as Jupiter will be much close the eclipsed Sun

A illustration of how a partial eclipse looks like either side of a total or annular; numbers match the one found on a eclipse's chart

Eclipse's main data are the following (data as of November 2018). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 31' 06.0", compared to the Sun's 32' 31.4". Greatest eclipse occurs in northern Indonesia at 05:17:43.3 UT, the duration 03m39.5s and the Sun 65.6 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 05:17:43.3 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 0.9701
- U1 to U4 (moments of first-last external-internal tangency of the umbra with Earth's limb; practically these are the moments of the eclipse for the places where the eclipse is total); in UT: U1 at 03:34:31.9, U2 at 03:37:36.0, U3 at 06:57:50.4, U4 at 07:01:00.5
- P1 to P4 (moments of first-last external-internal tangency of the penumbra with Earth's limb; practically these are the moments of the eclipse for the places where the eclipse is partial), in UT: P1 at 02:29:51.0, P2 at 05:01:25.7, P3 at 05:34:04.4, P4 at 08:05:43.6

see a map for the partial solar eclipse of December 26th, 2019. map courtesy EclipseWise.com

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, you may see at the Internet, with Fred Espenak a reference in the domain