The Total Solar Eclipse of December 14th, 2020

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 2020 is a total solar eclipse occurring on December 14th, 2020. 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 December 14th, 2020 is mostly a southern South America one as it is to unfold from the mid-Pacific ocean to the Atlantic one, near the shores of southern Africa. The eclipse centrality is beginning northeast of French Polynesia and making no landfall until it reaches southern South America in Chili. That will be South of Santiago, by the city of Temuco. The eclipse will then cross Argentina and reach the Atlantic ocean by the San Matias Gulf. Thence the eclipse will cross the southern Atlantic ocean, with no landfall again and ending short the shores of Namibia. That will be the summer season in the southern hemisphere likely allowing for good observing conditions. Eclipse's path width is at 56.1 miles (90.2 kilometers). As the greatest eclipse occurs in Argentina by 16:13:22.9 UT, the Sun there will be lying then at a 72.7 degree of altitude and the eclipse lasting 2 minutes 9.6 seconds. The eclipse occurs 1.8 days after perigee only which means the lunar disk will be of importance. Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from the mid- to the eastern Pacific, from Ecuador to parts of the Antarctica, or in the southern Atlantic ocean. Some islands in the Pacific and also in the Atlantic will be concerned. The closer the centrality line, the more indented the Sun. The background of the total eclipse will be in constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder. Mercury will be seen at totality close to the eclipse as Venus will be more distant. Jupiter, albeit distant too, will be amazingly be seen in a close call to Saturn!

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 2019). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 32' 47.4", compared to the Sun's 32' 29.8". Greatest eclipse occurs in Argentina at 16:13:22.9 UT, the duration is 02m09.6s and the Sun 72.7 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 16:13:22.9 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 1.0254
- 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 14:32:27.9, U2 at 14:33:00.1, U3 at 17:53:44.7, U4 at 17:54:12.9
- 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 13:33:47.7, P2 at 15:36:45.7, P3 at 16:49:52.2, P4 at 18:52:59.8

see a map for the partial solar eclipse of December 14th, 2020. 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