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The Total Solar Eclipse of March 9th, 2016

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 first -and first major astronomical event of 2016- solar eclipse in 2016 is a total solar eclipse occurring on March 9th, 2016. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, along a certain path, may be seen entirely occulted by the Moon's disk, leading to the much famed show of the solar corona streaming away from the occulted disk of the Sun at greatest. Anywhere in the area of a partial solar eclipse, observers are treated with a Sun indented by the dark disk of the Moon. for more about solar eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial "Sun Eclipses". The total solar eclipse of March 9th, 2016 is occurring from the Far East to the eastern Pacific Ocean. The eclipse centrality is beginning West of the Sumatra Island, Indonesia as the eclipse will then journey through southern Borneo and the Celebes. Whence it will cross the void expanses of the Pacific Ocean, reaching land here and there only. Eclipse's path width is at 96.4 miles (155.1 kilometers). As the greatest eclipse occurs in the Pacific Ocean, the Sun will be lying then at a 74.8 degree of altitude and the eclipse lasting 04m 09.5s. Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from southern Siberia and the southern Indian Ocean to Alaska and the equatorial Pacific. The closer the central line, the more indented the Sun like, for example, in Indochina or Papua New Guinea. China, Japan, parts of Australia and the Alaska are concerned by a lesser partial eclipse. The background of the total eclipse is southwest of the Circlet, in Aquarius, the Water Bearer, the Fishes as the totality will unveil Mercury and Venus

Eclipse's main data are the following (data as of Dec. 26, 2015, NASA Eclipse Web Site). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 33' 7", compared to the Sun's 32' 13". Greatest eclipse occurs in the Pacific Ocean at 01:57:11.5 UT, the duration 04m 09.5s and the Sun 74.8 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 01:57:11.5 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 1.0450
- 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 00:15:57.3, U2 at 00:17:29.9, U3 at 03:36:45.1, U4 at 03:38:20.7
- 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 23:19:20.4, P2 at 01:17:0.2, P3 at 02:36:30.0, P4 at 04:34:55.4

see a .gif map for the total solar eclipse of March 9th, 2016. map courtesy NASA Eclipse Web Site

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, you may see at NASA Eclipse Web Site or at Eclipse Wise, Espenak's new personal website