March 8 to 9, 2016, Total Solar Eclipse Path Crosses Indonesia

Summary: The March 8 to 9, 2016, total solar eclipse path crosses Indonesia while Asia, Australia and U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii lie in path of partiality.

specifics of March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse: Fred Espinak/Goddard Space Flight Center, Public Domain, via NASA Eclipse Web Site

Ideal locations for the March 8 to 9, 2016, total solar eclipse are the Indian and North Pacific oceans and Indonesia. A partial eclipse crosses south and east Asia, and northern and western Australia. On March 8, Alaska and Hawaii have partial views.

From Earth’s perspective, the apparent passage of the moon between the sun and Earth occasions a solar eclipse. The moon appears to obscure, or hide, the sun completely or partially.

Time zone determines viewability Tuesday, March 8, or Wednesday, March 9. Location determines viewing of a partial or a total eclipse.

The path of totality traces a length of over 8,800 miles (14,162 kilometers) of Earth’s surface. The widest point of the path’s narrow width accounts for 96.37 miles (155.1 kilometers) on Earth’s surface.

The March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse begins the long, narrow trek of its path of totality at sunrise March 9 over the Indian Ocean, west of the Indonesian Archipelago. The path of totality continues across Indonesia and eastward across the North Pacific Ocean. Last views of the March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse are available in the Pacific Ocean west of the North American continent at sunset.

The March 8 to 9, 2016 solar eclipse is available as a partial solar eclipse over more land masses than the island chain favored by 2016’s oceanic-prone total solar eclipse. The path of partiality traverses south and southeastern Asia, Japan, Korea, the Russian Far East’s Kamchatkha Peninsula and coastal Chukotka, as well as northern and western Australia on March 9.

The paths of partiality and totality cross the date-adjusting International Date Line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The solar eclipse’s continued journey eastward beyond the 180th meridian accounts for the partial eclipse’s occurrence over Alaska and Hawaii in the late afternoon of the day before, Tuesday, March 8.

The event of the closest passage to Earth’s center by the axis of the moon’s shadow cone is known as the greatest eclipse.  The greatest eclipse of the March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse occurs at 01:57:11.5 Universal Time over the West Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and northeast of the South West Pacific island of New Guinea. The watery intersection at 10 degrees 07.3 minutes north latitude and 148 degrees 47.6 minutes east longitude claims the greatest eclipse of the March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse. The greatest eclipse lasts just over four minutes (04 minutes 09.5 seconds).

The March 8 to 9, 2016 total solar eclipse takes place over a period of 3 hours 23 minutes, from 00:15 to 03:38 Universal Time on March 9 (7:15 p.m. to 10:38 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, March 8). The March 8 to 9, 2016 partial solar eclipse lasts for 5 1/2 hours, from 23:19 March 8 to 04:34 March 9 (6:19 p.m. to 11:34 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, March 8).

Duration of totality varies with locality. Lowest duration registers over one minute. Over four minutes elapse for longest duration. For example, totality lasts 2 minutes 6.9 seconds midway over southern Sumatra at 00:22 Coordinated Universal Time on March 9. Further to the northeast, near the Micronesian atoll of Woleai, totality endures for 4 minutes 9 seconds at 01:42 Coordinated Universal Time on March 9.

The next total solar eclipse takes place on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, and favors the continental United States. The path of totality extends with a southerly dip, eastward from the Pacific Northwest to the upper South Atlantic coast.

animation of total solar eclipse March 8-9, 2016: A.T. Sinclair/NASA, 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:

March 8 to 9 total solar eclipse specifics: Fred Espinak/Goddard Space Flight Center, Public Domain, via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2016Mar09T.GIF

animation of total solar eclipse March 8-9, 2016: A.T. Sinclair/NASA, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2016Mar09T.gif

For further information:

"Eclipses of 2016." NASA Eclipse Web Site.
Available @ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

Frazier, Sarah. "A Moment in the Sun's Atmosphere: NASA's Science During the March 2016 Total Solar Eclipse." NASA > Feature > Goddard > Eclipses and Transits. March 3, 2016.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/a-moment-in-the-suns-atmosphere

Frazier, Sarah. "NASA Releases March 8 Total Solar Eclipse Visualizations." NASA > Feature > Goddard > Eclipses and Transits." Feb. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-releases-march-8-total-solar-eclipse-visualizations

McClure, Bruce. "Supermoon total solar eclipse March 8-9." EarthSky > Tonight. March 8, 2016.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/?p=230175

NASA.gov Video. "Movement of March 2016 Total Solar Eclipse Shadow (Animation)." YouTube. Feb. 12, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGZCgg0YKM4

NASA Sun & Space @NASASun. "Don't forget--you can watch a live feed of #Eclipse2016 on Tuesday (March 8) @ 8pm ET!" Twitter. March 4, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NASASun/status/705826401144991745