Solar eclipse of October 14, 2023

Solar eclipse of October 14, 2023
Annular Solar Eclipse as viewed within 170 meters (560 feet) of the eclipse centerline and within 1 second of maximum eclipse (Hobbs, New Mexico, USA).
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.3753
Magnitude	0.952
Maximum eclipse
Duration	317 s (5 min 17 s)
Coordinates	11°24′N83°06′W / 11.4°N 83.1°W / 11.4; -83.1
Max. width of band	187 km (116 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	18:00:41
References
Saros	134 (44 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9560

An annular solar eclipse occurred on October 14, 2023. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [ excessive citations ]} 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 or miles wide. Occurring only 4.6 days after apogee (Apogee on October 10, 2023), the Moon's apparent diameter was small.

Visibility

Animated map of the eclipse's path across North America and South America

United States

The path of the eclipse crossed the United States beginning in Oregon, entering at Dunes City, and passing over Newport, Crater Lake National Park, Eugene (passing over University of Oregon), and Medford. ^[6] After passing over the northeast corner of California (in Modoc National Forest), it traveled through Nevada (passing over Black Rock Desert, Winnemucca and Elko) and Utah (passing over Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Bluff). ^[6] After that, it covered the northeast corner of Arizona (including Kayenta) and the southwest corner of Colorado (including Cortez and the Ute Mountain Reservation). ^[6] In New Mexico, it passed over Farmington, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell, Hobbs, and Carlsbad. ^[6] Afterwards, it entered Texas, passing over Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Kerrville, San Antonio and Corpus Christi before entering the Gulf of Mexico. ^[6] This was the second annular eclipse visible from Albuquerque in 11 years, where it crossed the path of the May 2012 eclipse. It also coincided with the last day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

A total solar eclipse crossed the United States in April 2024 (12 states) (Saros 139, Ascending Node), and a future solar eclipse will cross in August 2045 (10 states) (Saros 136, Descending Node). An annular solar eclipse will occur in June 2048 (9 states) (Saros 128, Descending Node).

Mexico

In Mexico, the eclipse path passed over the Yucatan Peninsula, covering Campeche City in Campeche State, Oxkutzcab in Yucatan State (coming close to Mérida), and Chetumal in Quintana Roo. ^[6]

Western Caribbean

In Western Cuba, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica all saw a partial eclipse (50% and above). The greatest of the partial eclipse was seen over Western Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Central America

In Belize, the eclipse passed over Belmopan and Belize City before leaving land again; when it entered in Honduras, it passed over La Ceiba and Catacamas, and in Nicaragua it passed over Bluefields. ^[6] The point of greatest eclipse occurred near the coast of Nicaragua. ^[6] After that, in Costa Rica it passed over Limon, and in Panama it passed over Santiago and came close to Panama City. Its point of greatest duration occurred just off the coast of Nata, Panama. ^[6]

South America and Brazil

In South America, the eclipse entered Colombia from the Pacific Ocean and passed over Pereira, Armenia, Cali, Ibagué and Neiva. ^[6] In Brazil, it passed over the states of Amazonas (covering Fonte Boa, Tefé and Coari), Pará (covering Parauapebas and Xinguara), Tocantins (Araguaína) Maranhão (Balsas), Piauí (Picos), Ceará (Juazeiro do Norte), Pernambuco (Araripina), Paraíba (João Pessoa) and Rio Grande do Norte (Natal) before ending in the Atlantic Ocean. ^[6]

Galleries

Videos and sequences

• 
  Animation of the Moon's shadow moving across Earth; captured from the GOES-16 satellite.
• Annular Eclipse timelapse video from Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 
  Composite of nine images taken in Hondo, Texas
• 
  Progression of eclipse taken from fixed camera location taken in Petroglyph National Monument

Annularity

• 
  Winnemucca, Nevada, USA
• 
  Mexican Hat, Utah, USA
• 
  Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
• 
  Annularity in the H-Alpha part of the spectrum. White Rock, NM
• 
  Villanueva, New Mexico, USA
• 
  Hondo, Texas, USA
• 
  Campeche, Mexico
• 
  Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará , Brazil

Partiality

• 
  Izard County, Arkansas, USA
• 
  Fremont, California, USA
• 
  Santa Ana, California, USA
• 
  Boise, Idaho, USA
• 
  National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma, USA
• 
  Mexican Hat, Utah, USA
• 
  Kerrville, Texas, USA
• 
  Belleville, Ontario, Canada
• 
  Apodi, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
• 
  Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
• 
  Pedra Mole, Sergipe, Brazil
• 
  San Salvador, San Salvador Department, El Salvador

Projections

• 
  Salina, Utah. USA.

Related eclipses

Tzolkinex

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of September 1, 2016
• Followed: Solar eclipse of November 25, 2030

Tritos

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of November 13–14, 2012
• Followed: Solar eclipse of September 12, 2034

Half-Saros cycle

• Preceded: Lunar eclipse of October 8, 2014
• Followed: Lunar eclipse of October 18, 2032

Solar Saros 134

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of October 3, 2005
• Followed: Solar eclipse of October 24–25, 2041

Inex

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of November 3, 1994
• Followed: Solar eclipse of September 22–23, 2052

Triad

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of December 13–14, 1936
• Followed: Solar eclipse of August 15, 2110

Eclipses of 2023

• A hybrid solar eclipse on April 20.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on May 5.
• An annular solar eclipse on October 14.
• A partial lunar eclipse on October 28.

Solar eclipses of 2022–2025

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. ^[7]

Solar eclipse series sets from 2022 to 2025

Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
119 Partial from CTIO, Chile	2022 April 30 Partial	−1.19008		124 Partial from Saratov, Russia	2022 October 25 Partial	1.07014
129 Total from East Timor	2023 April 20 Hybrid	−0.39515		134 Annular from Campeche, Mexico	2023 October 14 Annular	0.37534
139 Total from Indianapolis, USA	2024 April 8 Total	0.34314		144	2024 October 2 Annular	−0.35087
149	2025 March 29 Partial	1.04053		154	2025 September 21 Partial	−1.06509

Saros 134

It is a part of Saros cycle 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 22, 1248. It contains total eclipses from October 9, 1428 through December 24, 1554 and hybrid eclipses from January 3, 1573 through June 27, 1843, and annular eclipses from July 8, 1861 through May 21, 2384. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. The longest duration of totality was 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node. ^[8]

Series members 32–48 occur between 1801 and 2100:
32	33	34
June 6, 1807	June 16, 1825	June 27, 1843
35	36	37
July 8, 1861	July 19, 1879	July 29, 1897
38	39	40
August 10, 1915	August 21, 1933	September 1, 1951
41	42	43
September 11, 1969	September 23, 1987	October 3, 2005
44	45	46
October 14, 2023	October 25, 2041	November 5, 2059
47	48
November 15, 2077	November 27, 2095

Inex series

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:
January 3, 1908 (Saros 130)	December 13, 1936 (Saros 131)	November 23, 1965 (Saros 132)
November 3, 1994 (Saros 133)	October 14, 2023 (Saros 134)	September 22, 2052 (Saros 135)
September 3, 2081 (Saros 136)

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1901 and 2100
September 21, 1903 (Saros 123)	August 21, 1914 (Saros 124)	July 20, 1925 (Saros 125)
June 19, 1936 (Saros 126)	May 20, 1947 (Saros 127)	April 19, 1958 (Saros 128)
March 18, 1969 (Saros 129)	February 16, 1980 (Saros 130)	January 15, 1991 (Saros 131)
December 14, 2001 (Saros 132)	November 13, 2012 (Saros 133)	October 14, 2023 (Saros 134)
September 12, 2034 (Saros 135)	August 12, 2045 (Saros 136)	July 12, 2056 (Saros 137)
June 11, 2067 (Saros 138)	May 11, 2078 (Saros 139)	April 10, 2089 (Saros 140)
March 10, 2100 (Saros 141)

Metonic series

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. ^[9]

Octon series with 21 events between May 21, 1993 and August 2, 2065
May 20–21	March 8–9	December 25–26	October 13–14	August 1–2
98	100	102	104	106
May 21, 1955	March 9, 1959	December 26, 1962	October 14, 1966	August 2, 1970
108	110	112	114	116
May 21, 1974	March 9, 1978	December 26, 1981	October 14, 1985	August 1, 1989
118	120	122	124	126
May 21, 1993	March 9, 1997	December 25, 2000	October 14, 2004	August 1, 2008
128	130	132	134	136
May 20, 2012	March 9, 2016	December 26, 2019	October 14, 2023	August 2, 2027
138	140	142	144	146
May 21, 2031	March 9, 2035	December 26, 2038	October 14, 2042	August 2, 2046
148	150	152	154	156
May 20, 2050	March 9, 2054	December 26, 2057	October 13, 2061	August 2, 2065
158	160	162	164	166
May 20, 2069	March 8, 2073	December 26, 2076	October 13, 2080	August 1, 2084

Citizen science

During the annular and total eclipses of 2023 and 2024, the GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) through the GLOBE Observer app will seek to collect information on air temperature, clouds, and wind. During the 2017 eclipse, citizen scientists contributed with over 80,000 observations of air temperature and 20,000 cloud observations. ^{[10] [11]}

See also

• List of solar eclipses in the 21st century

References

1. Wall, Mike (October 18, 2023). "NASA astronaut snaps photo of solar eclipse from the space station". Space.com.
2. Bowman, Emma (October 14, 2023). "Scenes from the rare 'ring of fire' eclipse". NPR.
3. "A Solar Eclipse Leaves Its Mark Across a Hemisphere". October 14, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
4. "PHOTOS: Rare 'ring of fire' eclipse moves across the Americas, stretching from Oregon to Brazil". PBS NewsHour. October 14, 2023.
5. "Satellite image captures moon's shadow over U.S. during solar eclipse - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. October 18, 2023.
6. "NASA - Annular Solar Eclipse of 2023 Oct 14". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.
7. van Gent, R.H. "Solar- and Lunar-Eclipse Predictions from Antiquity to the Present". A Catalogue of Eclipse Cycles. Utrecht University. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
8. "NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 134". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov.
9. Note S1: Eclipses & Predictions in Freeth, Tony (2014). "Eclipse Prediction on the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculating Machine Known as the Antikythera Mechanism". PLOS ONE. 9 (7): e103275. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j3275F. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103275 . PMC   4116162 . PMID   25075747.
10. "GLOBE Observer Eclipse". GLOBE Program Eclipse.
11. "Taking observations with Globe Observer Eclipse app". Globe Observer Taking observations with the Eclipse app.

External links

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• Five video streams hosted by NASA and Exploratorium
• NationalEclipse.com An educational site with overviews, maps, city data, events, animations, merchandise, historical information, and other resources for the 2023 eclipse and others.
• Eclipse2024.org An educational site with comprehensive eclipse information, an eclipse simulator and other resources for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses.