Annular Eclipse of the Sun: 2005 October 03

Global Circumstances and Animation

The global visibility of this solar eclipse is shown in the diagram to the left. A higher quality version of this global plot can be downloaded in pdf format by clicking on this image.

An explanation of this diagram can be found here.

The eclipse will be visible from parts of Greenland, Europe, including the British Isles, Africa, the Middle East and western Asia including parts of India. The path of annularity begins at sunrise over the North Atlantic Ocean and crosses the Iberian peninsula, northern and eastern Africa and ends at sunset over the central part of the Indian Ocean.

The capital cities of Spain and Algeria, Madrid and Algiers respectively, lie on the path of annularity and will have good views of the eclipse during the morning of October 3.

This eclipse is part of Saros 134 and occurs at the descending node of the Moon's orbit.

The animation shown in the diagram to the right illustrates the motion of the shadow of the Moon at five minute intervals. This animation runs in a continuous loop.

This graphic, provided by Dr. Andrew Sinclair, shows the grey penumbral shadow where the eclipse will be seen as a partial one and the much smaller red umbral shadow where the eclipse will be seen as an annular one. The UT time is shown in the upper right-hand corner of the diagram and the central line duration of the eclipse can be seen in the lower right-hand corner.

Local Circumstances and Animations

Diagrams showing the configuration of the eclipse including the local circumstances are available for the 803 locations given in the following table. All timing information is given in Universal time (UT). Animations showing the progress of the eclipse are also available for the locations specified. These animations can be as large as 275kb in size. It may be necessary to download these files for optimum performance. Eclipses for the locations listed in the following table in the period 1501 CE to 2100 CE can be found by following the location link. A location which lies within the path of annularity is highlighted.

Please use the browser's back button after viewing a local circumstances diagram or an animated gif file.

Eclipse Trivia

For several years, I have been trying to see an annular eclipse of the Sun. Having been "fogged out" in Tain in northern Scotland on 2003 May 31, Madrid seemed the most logical place to be at the beginning of October 2005.

The morning of 2005 October 3 dawned in the Spanish capital as a beautiful, clear, autumnal one. Fortunately, the cirrus cloud of the previous afternoon had vanished completely. Outside the Palacio Real in the Plaza de Oriente, large numbers of people had gathered to watch the first annular eclipse of the Sun to be seen in Madrid for more than 240 years as can be seen in the photograph to the right by fellow observer Dave Stickland.

At 9:40 CEST, the Moon started its passage across the solar disc, appearing to move almost vertically downwards like a blind in front of the Sun. By 10:40 CEST, a chill had started to descend on the square, the temperature eventually dropping by more than 7°C at mid-eclipse. The Sun still dominated the south-eastern sky some 30° above the horizon. At 10:56 CEST, the annular phase of the eclipse started. Light levels in the square had dropped noticeably but the Sun was still bright enough to require the use of eclipse glasses for a proper view of the the annular phase.

In the photograph on the left of a projection of the solar image at mid-eclipse taken by Professor Gracia Rodrigues and Marta Folgueira Lopez, it is clear to see how well placed observers in Madrid were for this eclipse.

There had been some discussion beforehand as to whether Jupiter might be visible, some 15° below and to the left of the Sun. However, this turned out to be overly optimistic. The sky was still too bright for Jupiter at magnitude -1.7 to be seen. An obscuration of the Sun of more than the 90% available at this eclipse would be required for this observation to be realized. A few seconds after 11 o'clock, the ring of sunlight which had lasted for more than 4 minutes was broken and the annular phase of the eclipse was over.

Over the next hour and quarter or so the Moon moved inexorably away from its spectacular alignment with the Sun. The trees and shrubs of the parks of Madrid were the perfect environment to see many thousands of crescent-shaped images of the eclipsed Sun on the ground as can be seen in the photograph to the right by Dave Stickland . At just before 12:24 CEST, the last remaining sliver of the Moon disappeared. The eclipse was over leaving some of us to contemplate our next rendezvous with totality in Turkey at the end of March 2006.

Steve Bell

Eclipses in 2005

2005 April 08 [ Solar: Annular-Total ]	2005 April 24 [ Lunar: Penumbral ]	2005 October 03 [ Solar: Annular ]	2005 October 17 [ Lunar: Partial ]
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