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On Monday, October 03, an annular1 eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses the Iberian Peninsula and stretches across the African continent. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes Europe, western Asia, the Middle East, India and most of Africa.
The path of the annular eclipse begins in the North Atlantic at 08:41 UT. Rushing southeast, the antumbra quickly reaches the northern coast of Spain and Portugal (08:51 UT). Bisecting the Iberian Peninsula, the antumbra engulfs Madrid (08:56 UT) which lies near the central line. The annular phase will last 04m 11s from this capital city with 90% of the Sun's surface being obscured by the Moon.
Isla de Ibiza straddles the northern path limit as the shadow crosses the western Mediterranean. Upon reaching the African continent, Algiers lies within the shadow's trajectory (09:05 UT) and will experience an annularity of 03m 51s. Following a southeastern course, the antumbra passes through southern Tunisia and central Libya where the Moon's umbral shadow will return six months later during the total eclipse of 2006 Mar 29. After briefly skirting northern Chad, the antumbra sweeps across central Sudan where greatest eclipse occurs at 10:31:42 UT. The annular duration is 4m 31s, and the Sun is 71° above the desolate desert landscape. The central track runs along the southern Sudanese-Ethiopian border before entering northern Kenya where it engulfs much of Lake Turkana (11:10 UT). Southernmost Somalia is the antumbra's final landfall (11:30 UT) before heading east across the Indian Ocean where the path ends at local sunset (12:22 UT).
This web site has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event. Additional and supplemental material for the 2005 Annular eclipse will be published here as it becomes available.
1An annular eclipse differs from a total eclipse in that the Moon appears too small to completely cover the Sun. As a result, the Moon is surrounded by an intensely brilliant ring or annulus formed by the uneclipsed outer perimeter of the Sun's disk. The solar corona is not visible during annular eclipses. Furthermore, a solar filter or projection is needed to observe all phases of an annular eclipse (see: Safe Solar Viewing).
The following maps show the overall regions of visibility of the partial eclipse as well as the path of the central eclipse through the Europe and Africa. They use high resolution coastline data from the World Data Base II (WDB).
Each map is available in two resolutions: 'Low' (web resolution) and 'High' (300 dpi print resolution). You may need to set your printer to 25% reduction in order to print 'High' resolution figures on a single page.
| Map Number | Title/Description | Low Resolution | High Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map 1 | Orthographic (Global) Map of 2005 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Map 2 | Europe & Africa - 2005 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Map 3 | Iberian Peninsula - 2005 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Map 4 | Africa - 2005 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Map 5 | Portugal & Spain - 2005 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
An implementation of Google Map has been created which includes the central path of the 2005 annular solar eclipse. This allows the user to sellect any portion of the path and to zoom in using either map data or Earth satellite data.
The following tables give detailed predictions including the Besselian Elements, shadow contacts with Earth, path of the antumbral shadow and topocentric data (with path corrections) along the path. Also included are special extended version tables of path coordinates and graze zones in formats convenient for plotting on maps.
The following tables give the local circumstances of the eclipse from various cities throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. These tables have a lot of columns and, consequently, are quite wide. To print them, set the paper orientation of your printer to "landscape" and set the scale to about 60%. All contact times are given in the tables are in Universal Time.
The following figures give show the Lunar Limb Profile (via Watts datum) for two points along the central line. Figure 1 gives the profile at 09:00 UT when the antumbral shadow is in central Spain. Figure 2 gives the profile at the instant of greatest eclipse (10:31:42 UT). The limb profile can be used to calculate corrections to the contact times or to determine the graze zones at the northern and southern limits of the umbral or antumbral path (Table 8).
| Figure Number | Title/Description | Low Resolution | High Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure 1 | Lunar Limb Profile for October 03 at 09:00 UT | Low | High |
| Figure 2 | Lunar Limb Profile for October 03 at 10:31:42 UT | Low | High |
The following links give detailed descriptions and explanations of the eclipse maps, tables and predictions.
- Map 1 - Orthographic Map of the Eclipse Path
- Table 1 - Elements of the Eclipse
- Table 2 - Shadow Contacts and Circumstances
- Table 3 - Path of the Umbral (or Antumbral) Shadow
- Table 4 - Physical Ephemeris of the Umbral (or Antumbral) Shadow
- Table 5 - Local Circumstances on the Central Line
- Table 6 - Topocentric Data and Path Corrections Due to Lunar Limb Profile
- Table 7 - Mapping Coordinates for the Central Path
- Table 8 - Coordinates for the Zones of Grazing Eclipse
- Mean Lunar Radius
- Lunar Limb Profile
- Limb Corrections to the Path Limits: Graze Zones
- Local Circumstances Tables for Annular Solar Eclipses
The annular eclipse of 2005 Oct 03 is the 43rd eclipse of Saros 134. The series began with the first of ten partial eclipses on 1248 Jun 22. The first eight central eclipse were total, which were then followed by sixteen hybrid events. The first purely annular eclipse occurred on 1861 Jul 08. After the last of thirty annular eclipses (on 2384 May 21), the series will produce seven more partial eclipses before ending on 2510 Aug 06. Complete details for Saros 134 may be found at:
The following links will provide live web coverage of the eclipse.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce this information and data when accompanied by an acknowledgment of the source:
"Eclipse predictions (maps) courtesy of Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC"
If you have comments, suggestions, corrections and/or additions, please send them (along with the URL address of this page) to Fred Espenak
Eclipse Predictions & Webmaster: Fred Espenak Email: espenak@gsfc.nasa.gov Official NASA Representative: Dr. Drake Deming
Planetary Systems Laboratory - Code 693
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Last revised: 2006 Aug 21 - F. Espenak
