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November 13th, 2012 Total Solar Eclipse

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 -and last- solar eclipse in 2012 is a total solar eclipse occurring on November 13th, 2012. 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. for more about the solar eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial 'Sun Eclipses'

At the reverse of the last, annular solar eclipse in May, that one is unfolding above southern Pacific. No landfall is provided however except in northern Australia. The eclipse line of centrality is seen beginning in northern Australia's Garig Ganak Barlu National Park, Northern Territory. The eclipse then crosses the Gulf of Carpentaria and reach ground back on the Cape York Peninsula, as people headed to the Great Barrier Reef will have a good opportunity to observe the eclipse, with Cairns, the gateway to there is about 19 miles South of the central line. The Sun however will be just 14 degree over the horizon. The eclipse then amazingly crosses all of the South Pacific Ocean with no landfall at all. The eclipse eventually ends about 500 miles West of Chilean coasts. Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from about the South Pole to central Pacific and from western Australia and eastern Indonesia down to southernmost South America. The closer the central line, the more indented the Sun like, for example, in New Zealand. A large number of Pacific islands are concerned with the partial eclipse. The background of the total eclipse is provided by Libra, the Scales with Mercury close to the Sun as Saturn, Venus and Spica of Virgo are seen too. Under those latitudes, a whole part of the sky is filled with Crux, the Southern Cross and Centaurus, the Centaur, with Agena and Rigel Cen

Eclipse's main data are the following (data as of November 2011, F. Espenak, NASA/GSFC). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 33' 24.8", compared to the Sun's 32' 19.8". Greatest eclipse occurs at 22:11:48 UT over the ocean, with a duration of totality at that time of 4 minutes 2 seconds and the Sun 68 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 22:11:48.2 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 1.0500
- U1 to U4 (moments of first-last external-internal tangency of the antumbra with Earth's limb; practically these are the moments of the eclipse for the places where the eclipse is total); in UT: U1 at 20:35:08.4, U2 at 20:37:03.7, U3 at 23:46:27.5, U4 at 23:48:24.1
- 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 19:37:58.1, P2 at 21:43:42.5, P3 at 22:39:44.4, P4 at 00:45:34.1

see a .PDF map for the November 13th, 2012 Total Solar Eclipse (a smaller .gif version is also available). map courtesy Fred Espenak - NASA/GSFC

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, you may see at Fred Espenak's NASA's eclipse website