Solar eclipse of December 26, 2019
Annularity as seen from Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	0.4135
Magnitude	0.9701
Maximum eclipse
Duration	220 sec (3 m 40 s)
Coordinates	1°00′N 102°18′E / 1°N 102.3°E / 1; 102.3
Max. width of band	118 km (73 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	5:18:53
References
Saros	132 (46 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9552

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of the orbit on Thursday, December 26, 2019.^[1][2][3][4] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring 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.^[5]

The annularity was visible in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam.

Details

Visibility and viewing

Animated path

It was the last solar eclipse of 2019. The central path of the 2019 annular eclipse passed through the Saudi Arabian peninsula, southern India, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines and Guam. A partial eclipse was visible thousands of kilometers wide from the central path. It covered small parts of Eastern Europe, much of Asia, North and West Australia, Eastern Africa, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.^[5][6] The eclipse started with an antumbra having a magnitude of 0.96; it stretched 164 kilometers wide, and traveled eastwards at an average rate of 1.1 kilometers per second. The longest duration of annularity was 3 minutes and 40 seconds, at 5.30 UT1 occurring in the South China Sea (0°45'54.0"N 105°29'06.0"E).^[5]

Map showing the visibility of the Annular Solar Eclipse on December 26, 2019, in India.

The eclipse began in Saudi Arabia about 220 kilometers northeast of Riyadh at 03:43 UT1 and ended in Guam at 06:59.4 UT1. It reached India near Kannur, Kerala, at 03:56 UT1. The shadow reached the southeast coast of India at 04:04 UT1. Traveling through northern Sri Lanka, it headed into the Bay of Bengal. The next main visible places were Palau (Malaysia), Sumatra and Singapore. It then passed through the South China Sea, crossed Borneo and the Celebes Sea, the Philippines archipelago and then headed towards the western Pacific. The antumbral shadow encountered Guam at 6:56 UT1 and rose back into space.^[5]

Gallery

• 
  Partial from Nabih Saleh, Bahrain, 3:32 UTC
• 
  Partial from Kuwait City, 3:52 UTC
• 
  Partial from Kochi, India, 3:59 UTC
• 
  Nilambur, India, 3:59 UTC
• 
  Mangalore, India, 4:16 UTC
• 
  Partial from Dhaka, Bangladesh, 5:13 UTC
• 
  Partial from Jakarta, Indonesia, 5:18 UTC
• 
  Labrador Nature Reserve, Singapore, 5:23 UTC
• 
  Partial from University of Science, Malaysia, 5:25 UTC
• 
  Batam, Indonesia, 5:25 UTC
• 
  Tanjungpinang, Indonesia, 5:25 UTC
• 
  Partial from Hefei, China, 6:18 UTC
• 
  Partial from San Jose del Monte, Philippines, 6:19 UTC
• 
  Partial from Digos, Philippines, 6:21 UTC
• 
  Merizo, Guam, 6:56 UTC
• 
  Partial Eclipse (Projection on a Paper) from Chennai, India.
• 
  Eclipse Progression from Batam, Indonesia

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 2018–2021

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.^[8]

Note: Partial solar eclipses on February 15, 2018, and August 11, 2018, occurred during the previous semester series.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2018–2021

Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
117 Partial from Melbourne, Australia	2018 July 13 Partial	−1.35423		122 Partial from Nakhodka, Russia	2019 January 6 Partial	1.14174
127 La Serena, Chile	2019 July 2 Total	−0.64656		132 Jaffna, Sri Lanka	2019 December 26 Annular	0.41351
137 Beigang, Yunlin, Taiwan	2020 June 21 Annular	0.12090		142 Gorbea, Chile	2020 December 14 Total	−0.29394
147 Partial from Halifax, Canada	2021 June 10 Annular	0.91516		152 From HMS Protector off South Georgia	2021 December 4 Total	−0.95261

Saros 132

This eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 132, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 13, 1208. It contains annular eclipses from March 17, 1569 through March 12, 2146, hybrid on March 23, 2164 and April 3, 2183 and total eclipses from April 14, 2200 through June 19, 2308. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on September 25, 2470. The longest duration of annular was 6 minutes, 56 seconds on May 9, 1641, and totality will be 2 minutes, 14 seconds on June 8, 2290. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s descending node.

Series members 28–50 occur between 1690 and 2100:
28	29	30
June 11, 1695	June 22, 1713	July 4, 1731
31	32	33
July 14, 1749	July 25, 1767	August 5, 1785
34	35	36
August 17, 1803	August 27, 1821	September 7, 1839
37	38	39
September 18, 1857	September 29, 1875	October 9, 1893
40	41	42
October 22, 1911	November 1, 1929	November 12, 1947
43	44	45
November 23, 1965	December 4, 1983	December 14, 2001
46	47	48
December 26, 2019	January 5, 2038	January 16, 2056
49	50
January 27, 2074	February 7, 2092

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

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Solar eclipse of 2019 December 26.

• Eclipseportal.com Annular Solar Eclipse 2019
• CIMSS Satellite Blog: Annular solar eclipse shadow
• solar-eclipse.de: The total solar eclipse of 12/26/2019
• CESSI Prediction of 26 December 2019 Solar Eclipse
• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements