PATH AND VISIBILITY

The path of the Moon's anti-umbral shadow begins in the Pacific Ocean about 700 kilometers southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. As the shadow first contacts Earth along the sunrise terminator (15:21 UT), the path is 311 kilometers wide and the annular eclipse lasts 4 minutes 34 seconds. Quickly sweeping east-northeast across the Pacific, the shadow's first landfall occurs at 15:54 UT along the western coast of Baja California (Figures 3 and 4). The path width has diminished to 267 kilometers as the curvature of Earth's surface brings subsequent points in the path closer to the vertex of the umbra. Nevertheless, the duration of annularity has increased to 5 minutes 28 seconds. This occurs because the surface or ground component of the velocity vector in the direction of the shadow's motion has increased fast enough to over compensate for the effects that the narrower path width has on the duration of annularity. From Baja, the Sun will appear 40 deg. above the horizon and the eclipse magnitude will reach 0.939 at maximum eclipse. This corresponds to an obscuration of 0.882 of the total surface area of the Sun's disk. As the anti-umbra rushes across the Golfo de California it moves with a ground speed of 0.9 km/s to the northeast.

After traveling through Mexico, the shadow reaches the American southwest where it enters south-ern Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas (Figure 4). El Paso lies just south of the center line and will witness a 5 minutes 40 second annular eclipse beginning 16:07 UT. Continuing through the panhandle of Texas, the path enters Oklahoma where Oklahoma City lies just inside the southern limit. Kansas and Missouri are the next two states in the shadow's path. Kansas City lies just outside the northern limit while Springfield barely lies within the southern limit. Both cities witness maximum eclipse at 16:45 UT with the Sun ~62 deg. above the horizon. St. Louis, Springfield and Decatur also lie in the path of annularity, while Chicago and Indianapolis lie just outside the northern and southern limits, respectively (Figure 5).

The instant of greatest eclipse[1] occurs at 17:11:27 UT when the length of annularity reaches its maximum duration of 6 minutes 13 seconds. The Sun's altitude is then 66 deg. and the path is 230 kilometers wide. Toledo stands on the center line as the anti-umbra heads across Lake Erie. Here, observers along both Canadian and U. S. shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario will witness the annular phase. Toronto, the largest Canadian city in the path, lies just inside the northern limit where maximum eclipse occurs at 17:24 UT. After skirting northwestern Pennsylvania, the path crosses upper New York State where Buffalo and Rochester witness the annular phase. Most of Vermont and New Hampshire fall within the path limits which continue across the southern half of Maine. Returning to Canada, the shadow crosses southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. At 17:56 UT, Halifax experiences an annular phase lasting 5 minutes 53 seconds with a solar altitude of 55 deg.

As the shadow leaves North America, it sweeps across the North Atlantic where it reaches the Azores at approximately 18:45 UT (Figure 6). The Sun is now 27 deg. high, the path width has grown to 270 kilometers and the central duration has diminished to 5 minutes 10 seconds. Several minutes later, the anti-umbra reaches the Atlantic coast of Morocco and heads inland where the leading edge of the shadow leaves Earth's surface at 18:57 UT. Casablanca witnesses the rare 'ring of fire' as the 4 minute 32 second annular eclipse occurs just 3 deg. above the western horizon. Finally, the annular eclipse ends at 19:02 UT as the trailing edge of the shadow leaves Earth along the sunset terminator. In a period of 3 hours and 42 minutes, the Moon's shadow sweeps along a path almost 14,000 kilometers long, encompassing 0.72 % of Earth's surface area.


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