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On Saturday, 2003 May 31, an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a broad corridor which traverses the far Northern Hemisphere. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in northern Scotland, and quickly sweeps across Iceland and portions of Greenland. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of Europe (except Spain and Portugal) and the Middle East as well as from central and northern Asia.This web site has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event. The material here is adapted from the NASA Technical Publication "Annular and Total Solar Eclipses of 2003" (NASA/TP-2002-211618). This publication was published in 2002 November and is now available for distribution. It is part of NASA's official eclipse bulletin publication series. Instructions and a form for ordering a hard copy of this publication can be found at:
Order Form for NASA Eclipse Bulletins For a brief report on this event, see Eclipses During 2003.
Additional and supplemental material for the 2003 eclipse will be published here in the coming months.
The following links give detailed descriptions and explanations of the 2003 annular eclipse maps, tables and predictions.
- 1.01 - Introduction
- 1.02 - Path of Annularity
- 1.03 - Orthographic Map of the May 31 Eclipse Path
- 1.04 - Stereographic Map of the May 31 Eclipse Path
- 1.05 - Detailed Maps of the Path of Annularity
- 1.06 - Elements, Shadow Contacts and May 31 Eclipse Tables
- 1.07 - Local Circumstances Tables for May 31
- 1.08 - Lunar Limb Profile for May 31
This information is adapted from NASA Technical Publication "Annular and Total Solar Eclipses of 2003" (NASA/TP-2002-211618).
The following maps show the overall regions of visibility of the partial eclipse as well as the path of the annular eclipse through Scotland, Iceland and Greenland. They use high resolution coastline data from the World Data Base II (WDB). Each map was chosen to isolate a specific region along the land portion of the eclipse path. Curves of maximum eclipse are included as well as the outline of the umbral shadow. The locations of many cities and towns are plotted to show their positions with respect to the path of annularity.
Each map is available in two resolutions: 'Low' (web resolution) and 'High' (300 dpi print resolution). You may need to set your printer to 25% reduction in order to print 'High' resolution figures on a single page.
| Figure Number | Title/Description | Low Resolution | High Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure 1.1 | Orthographic (Global) Map of 2003 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Figure 1.2 | Stereographic Map of 2003 Annular Solar Eclipse | Low | High |
| Figure 1.3 | 2003 Eclipse Path Through Europe | Low | High |
| Figure 1.4 | Path of Annularity Through Scotland, Iceland and Greenland | Low | High |
| Figure 1.5 | Path of Annularity Through Scotland and Faroe Islands | Low | High |
| Figure 1.6 | Path of Annularity Through Iceland | Low | High |
These figures are adapted from NASA Technical Publication "Annular and Total Solar Eclipses of 2003" (NASA/TP-2002-211618).
The following tables give detailed predictions including the Besselian Elements, shadow contacts with Earth, path of the antumbral shadow and topocentric data (with path corrections) along the path. Also included are special extended version tables of path coordinates and graze zones in formats convenient for plotting on maps.
- Table 1.1 - Elements of the Eclipse
- Table 1.2 - Shadow Contacts and Circumstances
- Table 1.3 - Path of the Antumbral Shadow
- Table 1.4 - Physical Ephemeris of the Antmbral Shadow
- Table 1.5 - Local Circumstances on the Central Line
- Table A - Topocentric Data and Path Corrections Due to Lunar Limb Profile
| Figure Number | Title/Description | Low Resolution | High Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure 1.7 | Lunar Limb Profile for May 31 at 04:05 UT | Low | High |
The following tables give detailed local circumstance predictions for about 330 cities and locations in the UK, Iceland, Europe and Asia. The predictions include the local circumstances at each contact and at maximum eclipse for every location. The Universal Time of each contact is given to a tenth of a second, along with position angles P and V and the altitude of the Sun. The position angles identify the point along the Sun's disk where each contact occurs and are measured counter-clockwise (i.e., eastward) from the north and zenith points, respectively. Locations outside the antumbral path miss the annular eclipse and only witness first and fourth contacts.
- Detailed Explanation of Local Circumstance Tables
- Table 1.6 - Eclipse Circumstances for Scotland and Outlying Islands
- Table 1.7 - Eclipse Circumstances for Iceland
- Table 1.8 - Eclipse Circumstances for Faeroe Islands and Greenland
- Table 1.9 - Eclipse Circumstances for England, Ireland and Wales
- Table 1.10 - Eclipse Circumstances for Europe: Albania - France
- Table 1.11 - Eclipse Circumstances for Europe: Germany - Norway
- Table 1.12 - Eclipse Circumstances for Europe: Poland - Yugoslavia
- Table 1.13 - Eclipse Circumstances for Asia Minor
- Table 1.14 - Eclipse Circumstances for Asia
- Table 1.15 - Eclipse Circumstances for Alaska & Canada
- Local Circumstances Eclipse Calculator - Calculate eclipse circumstances for any location or city (courtesy of Chris O'Byrne.
The following links give detailed information about the weather prospects for the 2003 annular solar eclipse.
This information is adapted from NASA Technical Publication "Annular and Total Solar Eclipses of 2003" (NASA/TP-2002-211618).
In May 2003, links will appear which will provide live web coverage of the eclipse.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce this information and data when accompanied by an acknowledgment of the source:"Eclipse predictions (maps) courtesy of Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC" If you have comments, suggestions, corrections and/or additions, please send them (along with the URL address of this page) to Fred Espenak
Eclipse Predictions & WebMaster: Fred Espenak e-mail: espenak@gsfc.nasa.gov Official NASA Representative: Dr. Drake Deming
Planetary Systems Branch - Code 693
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