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The Annular Solar Eclipse of September 1st, 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 second solar eclipse in 2016 is a annular eclipse occurring on September 1st, 2014. 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'. Due to the eclipse geometry, the ring of Sun still seen at greatest should be relatively large. The annular solar eclipse of September 1st, 2016 is occurring from the shores of northwestern Africa down to the southern Indian Ocean. The eclipse centrality is beginning since West of the Gulf of Guinea as it will then follow closely to the Equator into Gabon whence it will head southeast through the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. It will then keep its course into the Indian Ocean, passing at Reunion, France. Eclipse's path width is at 62 miles (99.7 kilometers). As the greatest eclipse occurs at the confines of Tanzania and Mozambique, the Sun will be lying then at a 70.5 degree of altitude and the eclipse lasting 03m 05.6s. Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from about the Canary Islands and South Africa to the Indian Ocean. Even the island of Sumatra is barely concerned by the eclipse's end. The closer the central line, the more indented the Sun like, for example, in Cameroon, Kenya, or Angola and Malawi. Most of Africa, generally, is concerned by the eclipse, northern North Africa excepted. The background of the total eclipse is southern Leo, the Lion as the eclipse could reveal Regulus to the northwest and a cluster of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury southeast

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 30' 24.8", compared to the Sun's 31' 42". Greatest eclipse occurs in the Pacific Ocean at 09:06:53.9 UT, the duration 03m 05.6s and the Sun 70.5 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 09:06:53.9 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 0.9736
- 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 07:17:49.6, U2 at 07:20:37.0, U3 at 10:53:00.5, U4 at 10:55:53.7
- 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 06:13:08.3, P2 at 08:33:51.4, P3 at 09:39:36.6, P4 at 12:00:40.5

see a .gif map for the total solar eclipse of September 1st, 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