Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017

Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017
Solar eclipse of February 26, 2017
	Partial from Buenos Aires, Argentina
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	−0.4578
Magnitude	0.9922
Maximum eclipse
Duration	44 s (0 min 44 s)
Coordinates	34°42′S 31°12′W / 34.7°S 31.2°W
Max. width of band	31 km (19 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	14:54:33
References
Saros	140 (29 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9545

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, February 26, 2017,^[1]^[2]^[3] with a magnitude of 0.9922. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring only 4.7 days before perigee (Perigee on March 3, 2017), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The moon's apparent diameter was just over 0.7% smaller than the Sun's.

It was visible across southern South America in the morning and ended in south-western Africa at sunset. In Argentina, the best places to see the eclipse were located in the south of the Chubut Province, in the towns of Facundo, Sarmiento and Camarones. Lunar perigee occurred at about 2017 Mar 03 at 07:41:24.5 UTC, 4.7 days later.

Predictions and additional information[edit]

Eclipse characteristics[edit]

Eclipse magnitude: 0.99223

Eclipse obscuration: 0.98451

Gamma: -0.45780

Saros Series: 140th (29 of 71)

Conjunction times[edit]

Greatest eclipse: 26 Feb 2017 14:53:24.5 UTC (14:54:32.8 TD)

Ecliptic conjunction: 26 Feb 2017 14:58:23.4 UTC (14:59:31.7 TD)

Equatorial Ccnjunction: 26 Feb 2017 14:38:46.0 UTC (14:39:54.4 TD)

Geocentric coordinates of sun and moon[edit]

Sun right ascension: 22.656

Sun declination: -8.49°

Sun diameter: 1938.0 arcseconds

Moon right ascension: 22.665

Moon declination: -8.92°

Moon diameter: 1895.6 arcseconds

Geocentric libration of moon[edit]

Latitude: 5.1 degrees south

Longitude: 0.6 degrees east

Direction: 336.5 (NNW)

Images[edit]

Animation assembled from 3 images acquired by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera.

Gallery[edit]

Partial from Villa Gesell, Argentina, 13:18 GMT
Coyhaique, Chile, 13:35 GMT, 1 minute before annularity
Partial from Pisco Elqui, Chile, 13:48 GMT
Partial from Punta del Este, Uruguay, 13:56 GMT
Partial from Puerto Cisnes, Chile, 14:17 GMT
Composed image as seen from Paraná, Argentina
Time lapse images as seen from Villa Gesell, Argentina
Animation of the eclipse as seen from Montevideo, Uruguay

Related eclipses[edit]

Solar eclipses of 2015–2018[edit]

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[4]

The partial solar eclipse on July 13, 2018 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2015 to 2018
Descending node			Ascending node
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
120 Totality in Longyearbyen, Svalbard	March 20, 2015 Total	0.94536	125 Solar Dynamics Observatory	September 13, 2015 Partial	−1.10039
130 Balikpapan, Indonesia	March 9, 2016 Total	0.26092	135 Annularity in L'Étang-Salé, Réunion	September 1, 2016 Annular	−0.33301
140 Partial from Buenos Aires, Argentina	February 26, 2017 Annular	−0.45780	145 Totality in Madras, OR, USA	August 21, 2017 Total	0.43671
150 Partial in Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina	February 15, 2018 Partial	−1.21163	155 Partial in Huittinen, Finland	August 11, 2018 Partial	1.14758

Saros 140[edit]

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 140, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on April 16, 1512. It contains total eclipses from July 21, 1656 through November 9, 1836; hybrid eclipses from November 20, 1854 through December 23, 1908; and annular eclipses from January 3, 1927 through December 7, 2485. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on June 1, 2774. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 11 at 4 minutes, 10 seconds on August 12, 1692, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 53 at 7 minutes, 35 seconds on November 15, 2449. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[5]

Series members 18–39 occur between 1801 and 2200:
18	19	20
October 29, 1818	November 9, 1836	November 20, 1854
21	22	23
November 30, 1872	December 12, 1890	December 23, 1908
24	25	26
January 3, 1927	January 14, 1945	January 25, 1963
27	28	29
February 4, 1981	February 16, 1999	February 26, 2017
30	31	32
March 9, 2035	March 20, 2053	March 31, 2071
33	34	35
April 10, 2089	April 23, 2107	May 3, 2125
36	37	38
May 14, 2143	May 25, 2161	June 5, 2179
39
June 15, 2197

Inex series[edit]

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
May 18, 1901 (Saros 136)	April 28, 1930 (Saros 137)	April 8, 1959 (Saros 138)
March 18, 1988 (Saros 139)	February 26, 2017 (Saros 140)	February 5, 2046 (Saros 141)
January 16, 2075 (Saros 142)

Metonic series[edit]

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

21 events between July 22, 1971 and July 22, 2047
July 21–22	May 9–11	February 26–27	December 14–15	October 2–3
116	118	120	122	124
July 22, 1971	May 11, 1975	February 26, 1979	December 15, 1982	October 3, 1986
126	128	130	132	134
July 22, 1990	May 10, 1994	February 26, 1998	December 14, 2001	October 3, 2005
136	138	140	142	144
July 22, 2009	May 10, 2013	February 26, 2017	December 14, 2020	October 2, 2024
146	148	150	152	154
July 22, 2028	May 9, 2032	February 27, 2036	December 15, 2039	October 3, 2043
156
July 22, 2047