Third of Four 2011 Partial Solar Eclipses Happens Friday, July 1

Summary: The third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses happens Friday, July 1, as a Southern Hemisphere event favoring coastal East Antarctica.

Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics for partial solar eclipse of July 1, 2011: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment, Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA GSFC Emeritus," via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses happens Friday, July 1, as a Southern Hemisphere event with a small D-shaped visibility area favoring the meeting place of the South Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans around coastal East Antarctica.

Time And Date web site notes that the July 2011 partial solar eclipse’s exclusively small path of visibility does not encompass any major population centers. On the NASA Eclipse Web Site, retired astrophysicist Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse,” observes: “Such a remote and isolated path means that it may very well turn out to be the solar eclipse that nobody sees.”

The lunar passage between Earth and the sun yields a solar eclipse for Earthlings. A partial solar eclipse signifies that the moon’s passage partly, but not totally, covers the solar surface, from Earth’s perspective.

Only the moon’s lighter, outer shadow, known as the penumbra, traverses Earth’s surface in a partial solar eclipse. The shadow’s two other regions -- the darkest, innermost region, known as the umbra, and the lighter area, known as the antumbra, extending beyond the umbra -- miss Earth’s surface.

The third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses begins with the first casting of the lunar penumbra onto Earth’s surface. The first contact happens Friday, July 1, at 07:53:41.6 Universal Time (10:53 a.m. Antarctica/Syowa Time Zone; 3:53 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), according to the NASA Eclipse Web Site. P1 is the designator for the instant of the penumbra’s first casting onto Earth’s surface.

Greatest eclipse takes place at 08:38:22.7 UT (11:38 a.m. SYOT; 4:38 a.m. EDT). Greatest eclipse marks the instant of closest passage of the axis of the lunar shadow cone to Earth’s center.

The penumbra’s last casting onto Earth’s surface signifies the end of the July 2011 partial solar eclipse. Exit from the moon’s penumbral shadow occurs at 09:22:47.6 UT (12:22 p.m. SYOT; 5:22 a.m. EDT). P4 is the designator for the penumbra’s last casting onto Earth’s surface.

Time And Date identifies Lützow-Holm Bay as the site where the lunar penumbra briefly touches Earth’s surface. The large bay indents the coast of East Antarctica’s Queen Maud Land (Norwegian: Dronning Maud Land). The bay’s western portal is Riiser-Larsen Peninsula. Its eastern portal is the Flatvaer Islands, also known as the Ongul (“Fishhook”) Islands. Claimed as a dependent territory by Norway, Queen Maud Land honors Maud of Wales (Nov. 26, 1869-Nov. 20, 1938), Queen consort of Norway from Nov. 18, 1905, until her death.

The third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses opens Saros series 156. The July 2011 partial solar eclipse is the first of 17 partial solar eclipses in Saros 156.

The third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses takes place just one lunation after its predecessor. The year’s second partial solar eclipse occurred Wednesday, June 1.

The July 2011 partial solar eclipse is succeeded by the year’s fourth and last partial solar eclipse on Friday, Nov. 25. The November 2011 partial solar eclipse anticipates an absence of partial solar eclipses from the eclipse lineup throughout 2012 and 2013. The next partial solar eclipse does not take place until Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014.

The 2011 eclipse lineup comprises a rare 4:2 combination of four solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses. On Wednesday, June 15, a total lunar eclipse punctuates the year’s first two partial solar eclipses. The year’s second lunar eclipse, which is also total, closes the year on Saturday, Dec. 10, as follow-up to 2011’s third and fourth partial solar eclipses.

The 2011 eclipse lineup initiates the occurrence of the rare 4:2 combination in the 21st century. Only five other years offer the 4:2 combination: 2029, 2047, 2065, 2076 and 2094.

The year’s four solar eclipses qualify 2011 as containing the second highest number of annual solar eclipses. From Earth’s perspective, the number of annual solar eclipses spans two as an annual minimum to five as an annual maximum.

Observers along the path of visibility should recall that direct viewing of partial solar eclipses is unsafe. Safe viewing of partial solar eclipses calls for use of proper equipment and following of proper techniques.

The takeaway for the third of four 2011 partial solar eclipses, which takes place Friday, July 1, is the favoring the Southern Hemisphere with a small D-shaped area off coastal East Antarctica for the event’s exclusive, isolated and remote path of visibility.

animation of July 1, 2011, solar eclipse: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics for partial solar eclipse of July 1, 2011: "Permission is freely granted to reproduce this data when accompanied by an acknowledgment, Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA GSFC Emeritus," via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2011-Fig04.pdf

animation of July 1, 2011, solar eclipse: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2011Jul01P.gif

For further information:

“July 1, 2011 -- Partial Solar Eclipse.” Time And Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available via Time And Date @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2011-july-1

Espenak, Fred. “Eclipses During 2011.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observer’s Handbook.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html

Espenak, Fred. “Five Millennium Catalog of Solar Eclipses: 2001 to 2100 (2001 CE to 2100 CE).” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcat5/SE2001-2100.html

Espenak, Fred. “Greatest Eclipse.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Glossary of Solar Eclipse Terms.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/SEglossary.html

Espenak, Fred. "Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011 Jul 01." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Lunar Eclipses > Lunar Eclipse Page: Lunar Eclipses: Past and Future: Eclipses During 2011 > Eclipses During 2011: 2011 Jul 01: Partial Solar Eclipse.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2011-Fig04.pdf

Littmann, Mark; Ken Willcox; Fred Espenak. “Observing Solar Eclipses Safely.” MrEclipse > Totality.
Available @ http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality2/TotalityCh11.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "First of Four 2011 Partial Solar Eclipses Happens Tuesday, Jan. 4." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2010.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-of-four-2011-partial-solar.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "First of Two 2011 Total Lunar Eclipses Happens Wednesday, June 15." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 8, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/first-of-two-2011-total-lunar-eclipses.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "July 1, 2011, Partial Solar Eclipse Opens Saros Series 156." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 22, 2011. Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/06/july-1-2011-partial-solar-eclipse-opens.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Second of Four 2011 Partial Solar Eclipses Happens Wednesday, June 1." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 25, 2011.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2011/05/second-of-four-2011-partial-solar.html