The first solar eclipse of 2023 will cover Australia and Southeast Asia to the Pacific region.
Mark your calendars. The first eclipse season 2023 begins Thursday, April 20 with a rare hybrid annular total eclipse.
An Introduction to the Solar Eclipse
Eclipses occur when the moon runs between the Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow across the planet’s surface.
The Moon’s orbit is tilted five degrees relative to the plane of the ecliptic and misses the Sun on most transits. Otherwise we would see two eclipses – a lunar and a solar eclipse – per month.
For an eclipse season to occur, the new and full moon must be very close to an intersection of the lunar orbit and the ecliptic. This happens about twice a year.
Total solar eclipses occur when the moon completely covers the sun, plunging those standing in the moon’s shadow into an eerie darkness and revealing the pearly white solar corona. This is the type of eclipse most people hop on a plane and head to some exotic location for.
Although we often marvel at how well the Moon aligns with the Sun as seen from Earth, this is not always the case. When the new moon approaches apogee and the sun is within perihelion for a few months, the inner umbra does not reach the surface of the earth and an annular solar eclipse occurs. Observers will then be treated to a brilliant “Ring of Fire” eclipse.
A bizarre hybrid solar eclipse
But on April 20 something stranger happened. The moon’s umbra barely touches the earth on one part of its orbit, only to lift off again on the other. This is the hybrid portion of the eclipse, going from a broken ring to totality and then back to a ring again.
The 49-kilometer-wide trail lands over the Indian Ocean at sunrise. The eclipse only touches briefly at three points.
The first touchdown will be over the extreme north-western tip of Australia along the Ningaloo coast and the small town of Exmouth. The shadow then crosses the Timor Sea, touching the eastern tip of the island nation of East Timor near the capital, Dili, and then traverses a scattering of Indonesian islands including Kisar, the Schouten Islands, and western New Guinea.
The maximum duration for the entirety is only 1 minute and 16 seconds, south of the Indonesian island of East Timor in the Timor Sea.
A rare (and distant) event
How rare is a hybrid solar eclipse? Well, there are only seven hybrid eclipses in the 21st centurySt century, or 3.1 percent of all total solar eclipses.
Annulars are actually more more frequent than totals in the current epoch and will increase even more over the next few hundred million years as the Moon slowly retreats from Earth until all central solar eclipses are elusively annular.
“The hybrid eclipse of April 20, 2023 is notable in that it lasts longer than most annular long shots, ending on October 17, 2172, the longest,” Eclipse tracker and researcher Michael Zeiler said Universe Today.
“There is true annularity at the end of the central path just before sunset, but with a brief duration of just over 4 seconds of annularity. This eclipse will have a total of about 1,800 miles of broken annularity.”
Solar eclipses are more common throughout the solar system than you might think. Rover on Mars regular witness misshapen annular solar eclipses courtesy of the small Martian moons Deimos and Phobos.
Also go to the surface of Jupiterlarge moons of , and you would see total solar eclipses that have a sharp fit similar to Earth’s during mutual transit time.
Viewing the solar eclipse
Though few live along the central path of next week’s eclipse, millions in Australia and Southeast Asia will be treated to partial views around the path. You need to Practice proper Eclipse security during all partial phases of the eclipse and use approved ISO 12312-2 glasses for viewing.
Sub-phases extend from Australia to Southeast Asia. Here are the circumstances for selected cities in the region:
Singapore – 3:55 UT – 15.6 percent maximum obscuration, with the sun at 70.5 degrees elevation.
Manila – 4:55 UT – 23.7 percent maximum obscuration, with the sun at 74.5 degrees elevation.
Darwin – 4:22 UT-80.7 percent maximum obscuration, with the Sun at 61 degrees elevation.
Jakarta – 3:45 UT – 39 percent maximum obscuration, with the sun at 66 degrees elevation.
Eclipse season… and beyond
This first eclipse season ends in the book with a subtle penumbra lunar eclipse on May 5 in favor of Africa, Asia and Australia. This is also the last total solar eclipse until the big one. We’re talking about them Great North American Total Solar Eclipse April 2024 in just under a year across Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Don’t miss the first solar eclipse of the year. We’ll see if live webcasts for the April 20th solar eclipse show up. Don’t miss the show either from the hybrid ring total path or from the partial stage area.
This article was originally published by universe today. read this original article.
