Solar eclipse of April 29, 2014

Solar eclipse of April 29, 2014
Partial from Adelaide, Australia
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Annular
Gamma	−1.00001
Magnitude	0.9868
Maximum eclipse
Duration	-
Coordinates	70°36′S 131°18′E / 70.6°S 131.3°E / -70.6; 131.3
Max. width of band	- km
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin	3:52:38
(U1) Total begin	5:47:50
Greatest eclipse	6:04:33
(U4) Total end	6:09:20
(P4) Partial end	8:14:28
References
Saros	148 (21 of 75)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9539

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Tuesday, April 29, 2014,^[1][2] with a magnitude of 0.9868. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly 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's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. The Moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because it occurred 6.2 days after perigee (on April 23, 2014, at 1:20 UTC) and 7.2 days before apogee (on May 6, 2014, at 11:20 UTC).^[3]

It will be unusual in that while it is a total solar eclipse, it is not a central solar eclipse. A non-central eclipse is one where the center-line of totality does not intersect the surface of the Earth (when the gamma is between 0.9972 and 1.0260). Instead, the center line passes just above the Earth's surface. This rare type occurs when totality is only visible at sunset or sunrise in a polar region.

This eclipse's gamma value was closer to 1 than any other eclipse from 2000 B.C. to 3000 A.D. This means the center of the Moon's shadow passed almost exactly at the surface of the Earth, barely missing the Antarctic continent by a few kilometers.

The center of the Moon's shadow missed the Earth's South Pole, but an annular eclipse was visible from a small part of Antarctica, and a partial eclipse was visible from parts of Antarctica and Australia.