Annular solar eclipse of 16 January 2056
A annular solar eclipse crosses the Earth on 16 January 2056. Along a track 86 km wide the Moon sits centred on the Sun but is too small to cover it, leaving a ring of sunlight for up to 2 min 52 s. The central line runs across Mexico. From Culiacán the central phase runs 1 min 47 s, with the Sun 9° above the horizon.
The numbers
- Type
- Annular solar eclipse
- Date
- 16 January 2056
- Greatest eclipse
- 22:14:59 UTC
- Eclipse magnitude
- 0.976
- Gamma
- 0.4195
- Central duration
- 2 min 52 s
- Path width
- 86 km at greatest eclipse
- Greatest eclipse at
- 3.9°N 153.5°W
See it in 3D
The simulator places the Sun, Earth and Moon at their true relative positions for this date and draws the shadow cones at real scale. You can scrub through the eclipse, drop an observer anywhere, and watch the umbra sweep the surface.
Loads about 300 KB on demand — nothing is downloaded until you press it.
Local circumstances
All times are UTC. Contact times are computed for each city from the Besselian elements against the WGS84 ellipsoid, at sea level and without refraction.
| Place | C1 | C2 | Max | C3 | C4 | Central | Obscured | Sun alt. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CuliacánMexico | 22:37:05 | 23:52:57 | 23:53:59 | 23:54:45 | 01:00:28 | 1 min 47 s | 92.8% | 9° |
| Gómez PalacioMexico | 22:41:27 | — | 23:55:19 | — | 00:59:54 | — | 92.6% | 5° |
| TorreónMexico | 22:41:33 | — | 23:55:19 | — | 00:59:54 | — | 92.6% | 5° |
| MonclovaMexico | 22:43:04 | — | 23:55:19 | — | 00:59:04 | — | 92.5% | 3° |
| Nuevo LaredoMexico | 22:44:34 | — | 23:55:39 | — | 00:58:28 | — | 92.4% | 1° |
| LaredoUnited States | 22:44:34 | — | 23:55:39 | — | 00:58:27 | — | 92.4% | 1° |
| La PazMexico | 22:33:15 | — | 23:52:19 | — | 01:00:36 | — | 91.9% | 12° |
C1 and C4 are first and last contact, when the Moon's disc touches the Sun's. C2 and C3 bracket the central phase. 199 of the 2,250 cities in the database see at least a 3% partial eclipse.
How these figures were produced
Positions come from astronomy-engine, a VSOP87/ELP implementation. From the geocentric Sun and Moon vectors the site computes Besselian elements — x, y, d, μ, l1, l2, tan f1 and tan f2 — and solves the observer's position on the fundamental plane against the WGS84 ellipsoid. Central durations agree with NASA's Five Millennium Canon to within about half a second. Full method and validation.