Eclipses During 2000

by Fred Espenak

Published in Observer's Handbook 2000, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

Four partial solar and two total lunar eclipses occur in 2000 as follows:

2000 Jan 21: Total Lunar Eclipse
2000 Feb 05: Partial Solar Eclipse
2000 Jul 01: Partial Solar Eclipse
2000 Jul 16: Total Lunar Eclipse
2000 Jul 31: Partial Solar Eclipse
2000 Dec 25: Partial Solar Eclipse

Predictions and maps for the solar and lunar eclipses are presented in a number of figures linked to this document. World maps show the regions of visibility for each eclipse. The lunar eclipse diagrams also include the path of the Moon through Earth's shadows. Contact times for each principal phase are tabulated along with the magnitudes and geocentric coordinates of the Sun and Moon at greatest eclipse.

2000 Jan 21: Total Lunar Eclipse

The first lunar eclipse of the year is total and is perfectly placed for observers throughout the Americas. The event occurs less than two days after perigee, just as the Moon enters Cancer. Although the eclipse is not central (the Moon's northern limb just misses the central axis), the total phase still lasts nearly 78 minutes. The eclipse begins at 02:02.9 UT with first penumbral contact. An hour later, the partial eclipse commences with first umbral contact at 03:01.5 UT. The total umbral eclipse begins at 04:04.6 UT and ends at 05:22.4 UT. The partial phase ends at 06:25.5 UT and the Moon leaves the penumbral shadow at 07:24.1 UT. The Moon's path through Earth's shadows as well as a map showing worldwide visibility of the event is shown in Figure 1.

At the instant of mid-eclipse (04:43.5 UT), the Moon will lie in the zenith for observers in Puerto Rico. At this time, the umbral magnitude peaks at 1.3298 as the Moon's northern limb passes 1.4 arc-minutes south of the shadow's axis. In contrast, the Moon's southern limb will lie 10.9 arc-minutes from the southern edge of the umbra and 33.2 arc-minutes from the central axis. Thus, the northern regions of the Moon will probably appear much darker than the southern regions since they lie deeper in the shadow. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will likely change dramatically with time. However, it's impossible to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality (see section: Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness). Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon (i.e. - north vs. south).

During totality, the winter Milky Way and constellations will be well placed for viewing. Gemini's Castor and Pollux lie a dozen degrees northwest of the eclipsed Moon, while the Beehive cluster or M44 is 7° to the east.

This event will be visible from all of North and South America, as well as western Europe. The eclipse is in progress at moonset from eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Observers in the central Pacific will find the eclipse already in progress at moonrise.

Table 1 lists predicted umbral immersion and emersion times for twenty well-defined lunar craters. The timing of craters is useful in determining the atmospheric enlargement of Earth's shadow (see section: Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses).

2000 Feb 05: Partial Solar Eclipse

The first solar eclipse of 2000 is confined to Antarctica and the surrounding ocean. Figure 2 shows the region of eclipse visibility. Greatest eclipse ¹ takes place at 12:49:23 UT when the eclipse magnitude will reach 0.5789. The penumbral contact times are as follows:

                         Partial Eclipse Begins:  10:55:46 UT
                         Partial Eclipse Ends:    14:43:08 UT

This event is the sixteenth partial eclipse of Saros series 150. The series will produce its first of forty annular eclipses beginning with the year 2126 and continuing for the next seven centuries.

2000 Jul 01: Partial Solar Eclipse

The second solar eclipse of 2000 is also visible from deep within the southern hemisphere. This time, the event is confined to the South Pacific Ocean and southernmost Chile and Argentina. The region of eclipse visibility is shown in Figure 3. Greatest eclipse ¹ takes place at 19:32:32 UT when the penumbral magnitude will reach 0.4765. The penumbral contact times are as follows:

                        Partial Eclipse Begins:  18:07:10 UT
                        Partial Eclipse Ends:    20:57:34 UT

This event is the sixty-eight eclipse of Saros series 117. The last eclipse of the series will occur in 2054.

2000 Jul 16: Total Lunar Eclipse

The second and final lunar eclipse of the year is also total and occurs in eastern Sagittarius. The event is a member of Saros 129, a series which is at its very culmination. Saros 129 has produced five deep total eclipses during the twentieth century, the last three of which have been central. This year's eclipse is the deepest of the series with the Moon's centre passing only 1.6 arc-minutes south of the shadow axis (Figure 4). As a result, the total phase will last 1 hour 47 minutes. This is close to the maximum duration theoretically possible. Thus, the event seems especially fitting as the last lunar eclipse of the Second Millennium.

The penumbral phase begins at 10:46.6 UT, but most observers will not be able to visually detect the shadow until 11:20 UT or so. The partial eclipse commences with first umbral contact at 11:57.3 UT. Totality begins at 13:02.1 UT and lasts until 14:49.1 UT. The partial and penumbral phases end at 15:53.9 UT and 17:04.5 UT, respectively.

At the instant of mid-totality (13:55.6 UT), the Moon will stand at the zenith for observers near Cairns, Australia. At that time, the umbral eclipse magnitude will be 1.7734. This is the longest total eclipse (1 hour 47 minutes) in 140 years. During the previous eclipse of this series (1982 Jul 06), the author watched totality while the Moon stood high above the Chesapeake Bay. I was amazed at how brilliantly the summer Milky Way glowed since it was all but invisible during the partial phases. It was an incredibly beautiful sight. Observers of this July's eclipse will have a similar opportunity. In this case, the totally eclipsed Moon will lie some twenty degrees east of the Sagittarius star clouds. A large variation in shadow brightness can be expected and observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality (see section: Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness). Note that it may also be necessary to assign different Danjon values to different portions of the Moon at different times.

It is indeed unfortunate that total phase occurs after moonset for most of the Americas. Only western Alaska will see totality. Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Japan will witness all of the partial phases and totality, while the eclipse is already in progress at moonrise from parts of eastern Asia. The Moon's path through Earth's shadows as well as a map showing worldwide visibility of the event is shown in Figure 4.

Table 2 lists predicted umbral immersion and emersion times for twenty well-defined craters. The timing of craters is useful in determining the atmospheric enlargement of Earth's shadow (see section: Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses).

2000 Jul 31: Partial Solar Eclipse

The third solar eclipse of 2000 is also the second solar eclipse of July. It occurs just one lunation after the July 1 solar eclipse, making it the third eclipse of the month! This time, the eclipse is visible exclusively from the northern hemisphere (Figure 5). The event transpires less than a day past perigee. First and last contacts of the Moon's penumbral shadow occur at 00:37:30 UT and 03:48:55 UT, respectively.

Greatest eclipse ¹ occurs just west of Greenland at 02:13:06 UT with an eclipse magnitude of 0.6033. The partial eclipse will be visible from northern Scandinavia, eastern Russia, Alaska, western Canada and the northwestern United States. For most observers in North America, the Sun sets in partial eclipse. A more detailed map of the region of visibility in North America is shown in Figure 6.

Local circumstances for a number of cities are given in Table 3. All times are in Universal Time. Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse magnitude and obscuration are all given at the instant of maximum eclipse.

This event is the fifth partial eclipse of Saros series 155. The first central eclipse of the series is total and occurs in 2072.

An animation shows the motion of the Moon's shadow across Earth's surface (courtesy of Dr. Andrew Sinclair).

2000 Dec 25: Partial Solar Eclipse

The final eclipse of the Second Millennium is a partial solar eclipse on Christmas day. Fortunately, the event will be well placed for observers throughout most of North America (Figure 7). First and last penumbral contacts occur at 15:26:37 UT and 19:43:12 UT, respectively.

Greatest eclipse ¹ occurs at 17:34:51 UT with a maximum eclipse magnitude of 0.7231 from Baffin Island. Most of North America will witness the event with the exception of northwestern Canada and Alaska. A detailed map (Figure 8) can be used for estimating eclipse magnitudes and Universal Time of maximum eclipse for locations throughout the continent. Local circumstances (in Universal Time) for a number of cities are given in Table 4. Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse magnitude and obscuration are all given at the instant of maximum eclipse.

This event is the fifty-seventh eclipse of Saros series 122. The last central eclipse of the series was annular and occurred in 1874. The series ends with a partial eclipse in 2235.

An animation shows the motion of the Moon's shadow across Earth's surface (courtesy of Dr. Andrew Sinclair).

¹The instant of greatest eclipse occurs when the distance between the Moon's shadow axis and Earth's geocenter reaches a minimum. Although greatest eclipse differs slightly from the instants of greatest magnitude and greatest duration (for total eclipses), the differences are usually quite small.
²Minimum distance of the Moon's shadow axis from Earth's center in units of equatorial Earth radii.

Key to Lunar Eclipse Maps

Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness

Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses

Eclipse Altitudes and Azimuths

The altitude a and azimuth A of the Sun or Moon during an eclipse depends on the time and the observer's geographic coordinates. They are calculated as follows:

             h  = 15 (GST + UT - ra ) + l
             a  =  ArcSin  [ Sin d Sin f + Cos d Cos h Cos f ]
             A  =  ArcTan  [ - (Cos d Sin h) / (Sin d Cos f -  Cos d Cos h Sin f) ]

     where:
             h  =  Hour Angle of Sun or Moon
             a  =  Altitude
             A  =  Azimuth
           GST  =  Greenwich Sidereal Time at 0:00 UT
            UT  =  Universal Time
            ra  =  Right Ascension of Sun or Moon
             d  =  Declination of Sun or Moon
             l  =  Observer's Longitude (East +, West -)
             f  =  Observer's Latitude (North +, South -)

During the eclipses of 2000, the values for GST and the geocentric Right Ascension and Declination of the Sun or the Moon (at greatest eclipse) are as follows:

      Eclipse               Date           GST         ra         d

     Total Lunar         2000 Jan 21       7.992      8.173     19.758
     Partial Solar       2000 Feb 05       8.999     21.232    -16.034
     Partial Solar       2000 Jul 01      18.677      6.743     23.043
     Total Lunar         2000 Jul 16      19.647     19.748    -21.224
     Partial Solar       2000 Jul 31      20.601      8.707     18.219
     Partial Solar       2000 Dec 25       6.302     18.308    -23.370

Eclipses During 2001

Next year, there will be two solar eclipses and three lunar eclipses:

2001 Jan 09: Total Lunar Eclipse
2001 Jun 21: Total Solar Eclipse
2001 Jul 05: Partial Lunar Eclipse
2001 Dec 14: Annular Solar Eclipse
2001 Dec 30: Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

A full report Eclipses During 2001 will be published next year in the Observer's Handbook 2001.

2001 Jun 21: Total Solar Eclipse

The next total eclipse of the Sun is the first of the twenty-first century. The path of the Moon's shadow begins in the South Atlantic and extends across southern Africa. The shadow enters the Congo in the early afternoon with a centre duration of 4 1/2 minutes (Figure 9). Traveling eastward, the path sweeps through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique where the duration drops to three minutes with the late afternoon Sun 23° above the horizon. Swiftly crossing the Mozambique Channel, the path intercepts southern Madagascar where the central duration lasts 2 1/2 minutes with a Sun altitude of 11°. The path ends two minutes later in the Indian Ocean.

Complete details are available in a special NASA bulletin (see below).

NASA Solar Eclipse Bulletins

Special bulletins containing detailed predictions and meteorological data for future solar eclipses of interest are prepared by F. Espenak and J. Anderson, and are published through NASA's Reference Publication series. The nominal publication date of each bulletin is 24 to 36 months before each eclipse. The bulletins are provided as a public service to both the professional and lay communities, including educators and the media. For more information and ordering instructions, see: NASA Solar Eclipse Bulletins

Acknowledgments

All eclipse predictions were generated on a Power Macintosh 8500/150 using algorithms developed from the Explanatory Supplement [1974] with additional algorithms from Meeus, Grosjean, and Vanderleen [1966]. The solar and lunar ephemerides were generated from Newcomb and the Improved Lunar Ephemeris. As in previous years, the author uses a smaller value of k (=0.272281) for total and annular calculations than the one adopted by the 1982 IAU General Assembly. This results in a better approximation of Moon's minimum diameter and a slightly shorter total or longer annular eclipse. The IAU value for k (=0.2725076) is retained for partial phases. For lunar eclipses, the diameter of the umbral shadow was enlarged by 2% to compensate for Earth's atmosphere and the effects of oblateness have been included. Text and table composition were done on a Macintosh using Microsoft Word. Additional figure annotation was performed with Claris MacDraw Pro.

All calculations, diagrams, tables and opinions presented in this paper are those of the author and he assumes full responsibility for their accuracy.

A special thanks to Rachel Courtland (U. of Penn.) for transferring this document to the web.

References

Espenak, F., 1988, Fifty Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1986-2035, Sky Publishing Corp., Cambridge, MA.
Espenak, F., 1989, Fifty Year Canon of Lunar Eclipses: 1986-2035, Sky Publishing Corp., Cambridge, MA.
Espenak, F. and J. Anderson, 1997, Total Solar Eclipse of 1999 August 11, NASA RP-1398, Washington DC.
Espenak, F., 1996, "Coming Attractions: A Solar Eclipse Sneak Preview", Sky and Telescope, 92, 2, 48-51.
Fiala, A. D., J. A. DeYoung, and M. R. Lukac, 1986, Solar Eclipses, 1991-2000, USNO Circular No. 170, Washington, DC.
Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, 1974, Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office, London.
Improved Lunar Ephemeris 1952-1959, 1954, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC.
Meeus, J., C. C. Grosjean, and W. Vanderleen, 1966, Canon of Solar Eclipses, Pergamon Press, New York.
Meeus, J. and H. Mucke, 1979, Canon of Lunar Eclipses: -2002 to +2526, Astronomisches Buro, Wien.
Newcomb, S., 1895, "Tables of the Motion of the Earth on its Axis Around the Sun", Astron. Papers Amer. Eph., Vol. 6, Part I.

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Webmaster: Fred Espenak Planteary Systems Laboratory - Code 693 Email: fred.espenak@nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

Last revised: 2004 Jul 28 - F. Espenak