Annular solar eclipse of 4 November 2078
A annular solar eclipse crosses the Earth on 4 November 2078. Along a track 280 km wide the Moon sits centred on the Sun but is too small to cover it, leaving a ring of sunlight for up to 8 min 29 s. The central line runs across Fiji, Chile and Argentina. It is the longest central eclipse of the 2070s. From Bahía Blanca the central phase runs 7 min 55 s, with the Sun 54° above the horizon.
The numbers
- Type
- Annular solar eclipse
- Date
- 4 November 2078
- Greatest eclipse
- 16:53:09 UTC
- Eclipse magnitude
- 0.925
- Gamma
- 0.2290
- Central duration
- 8 min 29 s
- Path width
- 280 km at greatest eclipse
- Greatest eclipse at
- 27.9°S 83.3°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. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahía BlancaArgentina | 16:12:25 | 17:53:00 | 17:56:49 | 18:00:55 | 19:33:34 | 7 min 55 s | 85.2% | 54° |
| TalcahuanoChile | 15:47:13 | — | 17:32:29 | — | 19:16:10 | — | 85.1% | 66° |
| ConcepciónChile | 15:47:35 | — | 17:32:49 | — | 19:16:20 | — | 85.0% | 65° |
| RancaguaChile | 15:46:23 | — | 17:34:09 | — | 19:19:19 | — | 85.0% | 66° |
| NeuquénArgentina | 16:01:08 | — | 17:45:29 | — | 19:25:09 | — | 84.9% | 60° |
| Mar del PlataArgentina | 16:21:52 | — | 18:05:49 | — | 19:39:29 | — | 83.6% | 50° |
| San BernardoChile | 15:45:18 | — | 17:33:29 | — | 19:19:01 | — | 83.6% | 67° |
C1 and C4 are first and last contact, when the Moon's disc touches the Sun's. C2 and C3 bracket the central phase. 307 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.