Second 2012 Solar Eclipse Is Total Solar Eclipse Tuesday, Nov. 13

Summary: The second 2012 solar eclipse is a total solar eclipse Tuesday, Nov. 13, with Southern Hemisphere totality from north Australia across the South Pacific.

Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics for total solar eclipse of Nov. 13, 2012: "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 second 2012 solar eclipse is a total solar eclipse Tuesday, Nov. 13, with a path of totality in the Southern Hemisphere beginning in northern Australia and spanning the South Pacific Ocean to end north of the Juan Fernandéz Islands off Chile’s west coast.

November’s total solar eclipse crosses the International Date Line. The event’s eastward path across the International Date Line has the curious effect of making totality appear to end before it begins, according to local times. The second 2012 solar eclipse begins Wednesday, Nov. 14, west of the International Date Line and ends Tuesday, Nov. 13, east of the International Date Line.

November 2012’s only total solar eclipse begins with first contact of the moon’s umbral shadow with Earth’s surface. Totality begins Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 20:35:08 Universal Time (Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 6:05:08 a.m. ACST - Australian Central Standard Time).

On the NASA Eclipse Web Site, retired astrophysicist Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse,” identifies Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in the remote, sparsely populated Arnhem Land region in Australia’s Northern Territory as the site of first land contact. The central eclipse path begins in the park, at a point located about 250 kilometers (155.343 miles) east of the Northern Territory’s capital city of Darwin.

November’s path of totality continues southeast over the park’s pristine, rugged wilderness on the Cobourg Peninsula. Totality’s path leaves Arnhem Land to venture across the Gulf of Carpentaria’s large, shallow waters.

The path of totality makes next landfall Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 20:37 UT (Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 6:37 a.m. AEST -  Australian Eastern Standard Time) on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland. “Mr. Eclipse” notes the Cairns Region on Cape York Peninsula’s east coast as “first and only populated region in the path.”

Known as the Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and also Gateway to Northern Australia, the city of Cairns is sited about 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) south of the path of totality’s central line. Time And Date web site gives the sun’s altitudes above Cairns’ east-southeast horizon as 13.8 degrees at totality’s start and 14.3 degrees at totality’s end.

Cairns’ totality begins Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 20:38 UT (Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 6:38 a.m. AEST) and lasts for two minutes. The NASA Eclipse Web Site finds that viewers along the central line gain only an additional five seconds, for a total duration of 2 minutes 5 seconds.

As a central solar eclipse, November’s event experiences the traversal of Earth’s surface by the lunar shadow cone’s central axis. The track laid by the shadow axis within the path of totality is known as the eclipse’s central line. Totality’s duration is longest on the central line and decreases to zero at the path of totality’s width limits.

Australia represents the only landfall along November’s path of totality. After exiting from Cape York Peninsula’s east coast, the path encounters the Coral Sea, the South Pacific Ocean’s marginal sea off Australia’s northeastern coast.

Totality continues across the vastness of the South Pacific Ocean to log its next major event in the Southern Hemisphere’s middle latitudes. Greatest eclipse signals the instant of the closest passage of axis of the moon’s shadow cone to Earth’s center.

Greatest eclipse takes place Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 22:11:48 UT. The NASA Eclipse Web Site places totality’s maximum duration at 4 minutes 2 seconds. At greatest eclipse, the path measures a width of 179 kilometers (111.225 miles). The sun is poised at an altitude of 68 degrees.

The path of totality ends over the open waters of the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Last contact between the lunar umbral shadow and Earth’s surface happens Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 23:48 UT (Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 8:48 p.m. CLST - Chile Summer Time).

The path’s end point lies four degrees north of the Juan Fernandéz Islands of Insular Chile (Spanish: Las islas Esporádicas “the Sporadic Islands”). The archipelago of three main volcanic islands is located about 670 kilometers (416 miles; 362 nautical miles) west of the V Valparaiso Region (Spanish: V Región de Valparaíso) of Chile’s central western coast.

A partial solar eclipse frames 2012’s only total solar eclipse. The partial solar eclipse begins Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 19:37:58 UT. End time for the partial solar eclipse is Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 0:45:34 UT.

November’s solar event produces a partial solar eclipse for areas of Earth’s surface that are contacted by the moon’s penumbral shadow. The penumbra is the shadow’s lighter, outer region. Contrastingly, the umbra, or dark, innermost region of the lunar shadow, is responsible for the total component of November’s solar event.

The path of annularity is smaller than the path of partiality. November’s solar event takes in three continents for its path of partiality: western Antarctica, Australia and southern South America. The expansive path also takes in easternmost maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania’s islands, from New Guinea to New Caledonia to New Zealand.

Oceanically, the Southern Ocean joins the South Pacific Ocean in the path of partiality. Also, partiality glides across the equator to include the low latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean.

An annular solar eclipse precedes the second 2012 solar eclipse. The year’s only annular solar eclipse takes place Sunday, May 20, as the first of the year’s two solar eclipses.

May’s annular solar eclipse also opens the year’s eclipse lineup as the first of 2012’s four eclipses. Fifteen days after May’s solar event, the year’s only partial lunar eclipse takes place Monday, June 4. Five days after November’s total solar eclipse, 2012’s second lunar event happens. Wednesday, Nov. 28’s penumbral lunar eclipse closes 2012’s eclipse lineup.

The November 2012 total solar eclipse belongs to Saros series 133. A Saros cycle links eclipses into families, known as series. A Saros cycle approximates 6,585.3 days (18 years 11 days 8 hours).

Observers of the annular and partial phases of April 2014’s solar eclipse should avoid looking directly at the sun. Safe viewing of April 2014’s solar eclipse entails use of proper equipment and following of proper techniques.

The takeaway for the second 2012 solar eclipse, which occurs as a total solar eclipse Tuesday, Nov. 13, is the path of totality’s exclusive landfall over northern Australia and eastward traversal of the South Pacific Ocean, and the path of partiality’s expansive landfalls as well as oceanic passes over the Southern Ocean and low latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean.

animation showing annular solar eclipse of Nov. 13, 2012: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Eclipse Web Site, 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 total solar eclipse of Nov. 13, 2012: "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/OH2012-Fig04.pdf

animation showing annular solar eclipse of Nov. 13, 2012: A.T. Sinclair/NASA Eclipse Web Site, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SolarEclipse2012Nov13T.GIF

For further information:

Chou, B. Ralph. “Eye Safety During Solar Eclipses.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses Help. Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety2.html

Espenak, Fred. “Eclipses During 2012.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observers Handbook.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2012.html

Espenak, Fred. "Figure 4 Total Solar Eclipse of 2012 Nov 13." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipse Page: Solar Eclipses Past and Future: Eclipses During 2012 > Eclipses During 2012: 2012 Nov 13 Total Solar Eclipse: Total Solar Eclipse of November 13.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2012-Fig04.pdf

Espenak, Fred. “Figure 5: Total Solar Eclipse of 2012 Nov 13.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observers Handbook > Observers Handbook Figures > Observers Handbook 2012.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2012-Fig05.pdf

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. “Table 4: Path of the Umbral Shadow of the Total Solar Eclipse of 2012 November 13.” NASA Eclipse Web Site > Observers Handbook > Observers Handbook Tables > Observers Handbook 2012.
Available via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHtables/OH2012-Tab04.pdf

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

Marriner, Derdriu. “First 2012 Solar Eclipse Is Annular Solar Eclipse Sunday, May 20.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 16, 2012.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-2012-solar-eclipse-is-annular.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “First of Two 2012 Lunar Eclipses Happens June 4 as Partial Eclipse.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 30, 2012.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-of-two-2012-lunar-eclipses.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Nov. 13, 2012, Total Solar Eclipse Belongs to Saros Series 133." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/nov-13-2012-total-solar-eclipse-belongs.html

“November 13/14, 2012 -- Total Solar Eclipse.” TimeAndDate > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2012-november-13

“November 14, 2012 -- Total Solar Eclipse – Cairns, Queensland, Australia.” TimeAndDate > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/australia/cairns?iso=20121113

“November 14, 2012 -- Total Solar Eclipse -- Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia.” TimeAndDate > Sun & Moon > Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/@8155707?iso=20121113