Solar eclipse of January 26, 2009

Solar eclipse of January 26, 2009
Annularity from Bandar Lampung, Indonesia
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	-0.282
Magnitude	0.9282
Maximum eclipse
Duration	7m 54s
Coordinates	34.1S 70.2E
Max. width of band	280 km
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	7:59:45
References
Saros	131 (50 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9527

An annular solar eclipse occurred on January 26, 2009. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth.An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometres wide.

It had a magnitude of 0.92 and was visible from a narrow corridor beginning in the south Atlantic Ocean and sweep eastward 900 km south of Africa, slowly curving northeast through the Indian Ocean. Its first landfall was in the Cocos Islands followed by southern Sumatra and western Java. It continued somewhat more easterly across central Borneo, across the northwestern edge of Celebes, then ending just before Mindanao, Philippines.

Images

• 

  Simulated view of relative diameters of sun and moon, as viewed near sunset at the central eclipse path over Borneo.

• 

  Animated path

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 2008-2011

This set of solar eclipses repeat approximately every 177 days and 4 hours at alternating nodes of the moon's orbit.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2008–2011

Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
121 Partial from New Zealand	2008 February 7 Annular		126 Total from Novosibirsk, Russia	2008 August 1 Total
131 Bandar Lampung, Indonesia	2009 January 26 Annular		136 Total from Bangladesh	2009 July 22 Total
141 Bangui, Central African Republic	2010 January 15 Annular		146 Total from French Polynesia	2010 July 11 Total
151 Partial from Poland	2011 January 4 Partial (north)		156	2011 July 1 Partial (south)
Partial solar eclipses on June 1, 2011 and November 25, 2011 occur on the next lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 131

It is a part of Saros cycle 131, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 1, 1125. It contains total eclipses from March 27, 1522 through May 30, 1612 and hybrid eclipses from June 10, 1630 through July 24, 1702, and annular eclipses from August 4, 1720 through June 18, 2243. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on September 2, 2369. The longest duration of totality was only 58 seconds on May 30, 1612.

Series members 46-56 occur between 1901 and 2100:

46	47	48
December 3, 1918	December 13, 1936	December 25, 1954
49	50	51
January 4, 1973	January 15, 1991	January 26, 2009
52	53	54
February 6, 2027	February 16, 2045	February 28, 2063
55	56
March 10, 2081	March 21, 2099

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).

This series has 21 eclipse events between June 21, 1982 and June 21, 2058.

June 21	April 8-9	January 26	November 13-14	September 1-2
117	119	121	123	125
June 21, 1982	April 9, 1986	January 26, 1990	November 13, 1993	September 2, 1997
127	129	131	133	135
June 21, 2001	April 8, 2005	January 26, 2009	November 13, 2012	September 1, 2016
137	139	141	143	145
June 21, 2020	April 8, 2024	January 26, 2028	November 14, 2031	September 2, 2035
147	149	151	153	155
June 21, 2039	April 9, 2043	January 26, 2047	November 14, 2050	September 2, 2054
157
June 21, 2058

References

• Annular Solar Eclipse of 2009 Jan 26, F. Espenak, NASA’s GSFC PDF
• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements

Photos:

• Spaceweather.com eclipse gallery
• [1] Astronomy Picture of the Day, January 28, 2009, A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay, Philippines