Solar eclipse of November 23, 2003

Solar eclipse of November 23, 2003
Solar eclipse of November 23, 2003
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	−0.9638
Magnitude	1.0379
Maximum eclipse
Duration	117 s (1 min 57 s)
Coordinates	72°42′S 88°24′E / 72.7°S 88.4°E
Max. width of band	495 km (308 mi)
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	22:50:22
References
Saros	152 (12 of 70)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9516

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, November 23, 2003,^[1] with a magnitude of 1.0379. 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. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. It was visible from a corridor in the Antarctic region. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including the southern tip of South America and most of Australia.

For most solar eclipses the path of totality moves eastwards. In this case the path moved south and then west round Antarctica.

Observations

A Russian icebreaker departed from Port Elizabeth, South Africa carrying tourists to observe the eclipse near the Shackleton Ice Shelf and Novolazarevskaya Station, and then sailed to Hobart, Tasmania. About 100 people from 15 countries were on board, including Iranian amateur astronomer Babak Amin Tafreshi, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist Fred Espenak, Williams College professor Jay Pasachoff. There are also about 200 scientists and tourists taking two commercial charter flights to observe it over Antarctica. This was the first time humans observed a total solar eclipse from Antarctica.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Images

Animated map

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses of 2000–2003

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[5]

Partial solar eclipses on February 5, 2000 and July 31, 2000 occur in the previous lunar year set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2000 to 2003
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
Ascending node			Descending node
117	2000 July 01 Partial (south)	−1.28214	122	2000 December 25 Partial (north)	1.13669
127 Totality from Lusaka, Zambia	2001 June 21 Total	−0.57013	132 Partial from Minneapolis, MN	2001 December 14 Annular	0.40885
137 Partial from Los Angeles, CA	2002 June 10 Annular	0.19933	142 Totality from Woomera	2002 December 04 Total	−0.30204
147 Culloden, Scotland	2003 May 31 Annular	0.99598	152	2003 November 23 Total	−0.96381

Saros 152

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 152, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on July 26, 1805. It contains total eclipses from November 2, 1967 through September 14, 2490; hybrid eclipses from September 26, 2508 through October 17, 2544; and annular eclipses from October 29, 2562 through June 16, 2941. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on August 20, 3049. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 30 at 5 minutes, 16 seconds on June 9, 2328, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 53 at 5 minutes, 20 seconds on February 16, 2743. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.^[6]

Series members 1–22 occur between 1805 and 2200:
1	2	3
July 26, 1805	August 6, 1823	August 16, 1841
4	5	6
August 28, 1859	September 7, 1877	September 18, 1895
7	8	9
September 30, 1913	October 11, 1931	October 21, 1949
10	11	12
November 2, 1967	November 12, 1985	November 23, 2003
13	14	15
December 4, 2021	December 15, 2039	December 26, 2057
16	17	18
January 6, 2076	January 16, 2094	January 29, 2112
19	20	21
February 8, 2130	February 19, 2148	March 2, 2166
22
March 12, 2184

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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011.
September 11-12	June 30-July 1	April 17-19	February 4-5	November 22-23
114	116	118	120	122
September 12, 1931	June 30, 1935	April 19, 1939	February 4, 1943	November 23, 1946
124	126	128	130	132
September 12, 1950	June 30, 1954	April 19, 1958	February 5, 1962	November 23, 1965
134	136	138	140	142
September 11, 1969	June 30, 1973	April 18, 1977	February 4, 1981	November 22, 1984
144	146	148	150	152
September 11, 1988	June 30, 1992	April 17, 1996	February 5, 2000	November 23, 2003
154	156
September 11, 2007	July 1, 2011