Annular solar eclipse of 10 March 2081
A annular solar eclipse crosses the Earth on 10 March 2081. Along a track 261 km wide the Moon sits centred on the Sun but is too small to cover it, leaving a ring of sunlight for up to 7 min 36 s. The central line runs across Chile, Argentina, Fiji, Ghana and Nigeria. From Accra the central phase runs 6 min 10 s, with the Sun 16° above the horizon.
The numbers
- Type
- Annular solar eclipse
- Date
- 10 March 2081
- Greatest eclipse
- 15:20:49 UTC
- Eclipse magnitude
- 0.930
- Gamma
- 0.3654
- Central duration
- 7 min 36 s
- Path width
- 261 km at greatest eclipse
- Greatest eclipse at
- 22.4°S 36.7°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. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AccraGhana | 15:45:11 | 17:03:21 | 17:06:29 | 17:09:31 | 18:16:46 | 6 min 10 s | 84.8% | 16° |
| LagosNigeria | 15:50:16 | 17:05:43 | 17:08:49 | 17:11:43 | 18:16:58 | 5 min 59 s | 84.6% | 11° |
| LoméTogo | 15:47:36 | 17:04:40 | 17:07:29 | 17:10:37 | 18:17:05 | 5 min 57 s | 84.8% | 14° |
| Benin CityNigeria | 15:52:14 | 17:06:14 | 17:09:09 | 17:12:10 | 18:16:22 | 5 min 56 s | 84.5% | 9° |
| CotonouBenin | 15:49:12 | 17:05:22 | 17:08:29 | 17:11:17 | 18:17:06 | 5 min 55 s | 84.7% | 12° |
| AbidjanIvory Coast | 15:40:14 | 17:01:48 | 17:04:09 | 17:06:45 | 18:16:45 | 4 min 57 s | 85.0% | 20° |
| AboboIvory Coast | 15:40:19 | 17:02:01 | 17:04:29 | 17:06:42 | 18:16:49 | 4 min 41 s | 85.0% | 20° |
| IbadanNigeria | 15:52:01 | 17:07:39 | 17:09:49 | 17:11:56 | 18:17:35 | 4 min 17 s | 84.6% | 11° |
| KumasiGhana | 15:45:17 | — | 17:07:09 | — | 18:17:51 | — | 84.8% | 17° |
| OyoNigeria | 15:52:40 | — | 17:10:09 | — | 18:17:55 | — | 84.6% | 10° |
| Ikot EkpeneNigeria | 15:52:39 | — | 17:08:29 | — | 18:14:47 | — | 84.3% | 7° |
| AbaNigeria | 15:52:16 | — | 17:08:29 | — | 18:14:50 | — | 84.3% | 8° |
| BafoussamCameroon | 15:55:08 | — | 17:09:09 | — | 18:14:08 | — | 84.1% | 4° |
| UyoNigeria | 15:52:41 | — | 17:08:29 | — | 18:14:36 | — | 84.1% | 7° |
C1 and C4 are first and last contact, when the Moon's disc touches the Sun's. C2 and C3 bracket the central phase. 359 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.