From 2:03 PM to 4:12 PM in Colombo
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Annular Solar Eclipse of January 26
The first solar eclipse of 2009 occurs at the Moon's ascending node
in western Capricornus. An annular eclipse will be visible from a
wide track that traverses the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. A
partial eclipse will be seen within the much larger path of the
Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the southern third of
Africa, Madagascar, Australia except Tasmania, southeast India,
Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The annular path begins in the South Atlantic at 06:06 UT when the
Moon's antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms a 363 kilometre wide
corridor. Traveling eastward, the shadow quickly sweeps south of the
African continent, missing it by approximately 900 kilometres.
Slowly curving to the northeast the path crosses the southern Indian
Ocean. Greatest eclipse takes place at 07:58:39 UT when the eclipse
magnitude will reach 0.9282. At this instant, the annular duration
is 7 minutes 54 seconds, the path width is 280 kilometres and the
Sun is 73° above the flat horizon formed by the open ocean. The
central track continues northeast where it finally encounters land
in the form of the Cocos Islands and onward to southern Sumatra and
western Java. At 09:40 UT, the central line duration is 6 minutes 18
seconds and the Sun's altitude at 25°. In its final minutes, the
antumbral shadow cuts across central Borneo and clips the
northwestern edge of Celebes before ending just short of Mindanao,
Philippines at 09:52 UT. During a 3 hour 46 minute trajectory across
our planet, the Moon's antumbra travels approximately 14,500
kilometres and covers 0.9% of Earth's surface area.
Partial phases of the eclipse are visible primarily from southern
Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Local circumstances
for a number of cities are listed in Table 2. All times are given in
Universal Time. The Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse
magnitude and obscuration are all given at the instant of maximum
eclipse.
This is the 50th eclipse of Saros 131. The family began with an
unusually long series of 22 partial eclipses starting on 1125 Aug
01. The first central eclipse was total in the Northern Hemisphere
on 1522 Mar 27. It was followed by 5 more total eclipses before the
series produce 5 hybrid eclipses from 1630 to 1702. The first
annular eclipse of Saros 131 occurred on 1720 Aug 04. The series
will produce 29 more annular eclipses the last of which is 2243 Jun
18. Saros 131 terminates on 2369 Sep 02 after a string of 7 partial
eclipses. Complete details for 70 eclipses in the series may be
found at:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Table 2 - Local Circumstances for the Partial Solar Eclipse
of 2009 January 26 in Sri Lanka
Eclipse Max. Eclipse Sun Sun Eclip. Eclip. Annular
Location Begins Eclipse Ends Alt Azm Mag. Obs. Duration
UT h m h m h m °
Colombo 08:33 09:42 10:42 41 238 0.285 0.171
Local 14:03 15:12 16:12
Time+5:30
