The Annular Solar Eclipse of June 21st, 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 first solar eclipse in 2020 is a annular eclipse occurring on June 21st, 2020. 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 June 21st, 2020 is occurring from central Africa to the western Pacific ocean. The eclipse first starts in the eastern reaches of the Republic of The Congo as through Democratic Republic of The Congo, a part of Central African Republic, South Sudan, a very small part of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea it will reach the southern Red Sea few above the the Bab el Mandeb strait. Thence it will cross the Arabian Peninsula trough Yemen then Oman and some parts of Saudi Arabia. Once crossed the Gulf of Oman, the eclipse will land in Pakistan. It will cross that country South and reach northwestern India. After that it will cross into Tibet and continuing into southern China. It remarkably will cross the Taiwan Strait and provide the Republic of China with the eclipse. Thence, it will run over the western Pacific ocean and eventually end about the U.S. island of Guam. The eclipse's path at greatest, will be at 13.2 miles (21.2 kilometers) as the greatest eclipse occurs near the border between India and China, by 06:39:59.3 UT. The Sun at that time will be lying then at a 82.9 degree of altitude and the eclipse lasting 0 minutes and 38.2 seconds. With Sun's apparent diameter at 31' 28.4" and Moon at 30' 48.0", that will let a mere about 20.2" of light of Sun each side of the occulting Moon! Like usual, a partial solar eclipse is seen either side of the line of centrality, from North Africa and southeastern Europe to Japan all along Russia, Central Asia, Mongolia and northeastern China. And from central and southern Africa to Indonesia and the Philippines as the whole of India, Myanmar, the Indochina Peninsula will also be concerned. The closer the central line, the more indented the Sun. The background of the annular eclipse will be the confines of Gemini, the Twins, Taurus, the Bull, and Orion, the Hunter as Mercury and Venus might become visible, albeit somewhat distant from the occulted 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 2019). The Moon's apparent diameter will be of 30' 48.0", compared to the Sun's 31' 28.4". Greatest eclipse occurs near the border between India and China at 06:39:59.3 UT, the duration 00m38.2s and the Sun 82.9 degree above the horizon. for more about how to observe a solar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Sun Eclipse':
- greatest eclipse: 06:39:59.3 UT
- eclipse magnitude (fraction of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon at greatest eclipse): 0.9940
- 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/annular); in UT: U1 at 04:47:38.0, U2 at 04:49:04.5, U3 at 08:30:55.1, U4 at 08:32:15.8
- 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 03:45:53.8, P2 at 05:51:32.6, P3 at 07:28:25.0, P4 at 09:33:57.5

see a map for the partial solar eclipse of June 21st, 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