Hybrid solar eclipse

The Sun will be eclipsed by the Moon. However, as the Moon will be close to apogee – the part of its elliptical orbit which takes it furthest from the Earth – it will appear slightly smaller than its average size of around 30 arcminutes across, in fact only 32.24 arcminutes, across, and only just fractionally large enough to entirely cover the Sun’s face. Consequently, this eclipse will be seen as an annular eclipse along part of its track, in which a ring of light from the Sun will be left uneclipsed, even at maximum eclipse, whilst other parts of the eclipse track will see a brief total solar eclipse. The total or annular phase of the eclipse will occur at around 12h47 UTC – up to an hour earlier or later depending on your exact position along the eclipse track – and will last for a maximum of 1 minutes.

On this occasion the Sun will lie at a declination of -14°50′ in the constellation Libra. The annular and total phases of the eclipse will be visible along a narrow east-west track across the Earth’s surface, but will be best viewed from longitudes around 11°W, where the annular/total phase of the eclipse will occur at noon, local time, appearing at an altitude of 71° in the sky.