February 2017 New Moon Blocks the Sun in Ring of Fire Annular Eclipse

Summary: The February 2017 new moon blocks the sun in a ring of fire annular eclipse that favors the South Atlantic Ocean with the instant of greatest eclipse.

annular solar eclipse captured by Hinode satellite, Jan. 4, 2011: NASA/Hinode/XRT (X-Ray Telescope), Public Domain, via NASA

The February 2017 new moon blocks the sun in a ring of fire annular eclipse with a path of annularity that traverses the southeastern Pacific Ocean, southern Chile, southern Argentina, the South Atlantic Ocean, Angola, Zambia and southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, the new moon’s ring of fire effect upon the sun lasts for 3 hours 16 minutes 19.5 seconds (3.26666666666667 hours). Retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, known popularly as Mr. Eclipse, clocks the February 2017 new moon ring of fire with a start time of 13:15:18.2, according to Universal Time (UT1), the main form of an Earth’s rotation-based time standard, Universal Time. Greatest eclipse, which is the instant of closest passage of the axis of the moon’s antumbral shadow cone to Earth’s center, occurs at 14:54:32 UT1. The annular solar eclipse, which began over the southeastern Pacific Ocean, ends in southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo at 16:31:37.7 UT1 (18:31:37.7 Central Africa Time).

The February 2017 new phase of the moon joins three other astronomical events as requirements for the presentation of an annular solar eclipse, as viewed from Earth. The new phase indicates the moon’s placement between Earth and the sun.

The science of an annular solar eclipse calls for alignment of Earth, moon and sun in a straight line, a configuration known astronomically as syzygy (Ancient Greek: σύζυγος, súzugos, “yoked together”). The new moon’s straight line intervention between sun and Earth allows for eclipsing, or hiding, of the solar disk and shadow-casting upon Earth.

An annular solar eclipse also requires the moon’s placement at or near one of the two lunar nodes that mark the points of intersection between Earth’s and the moon’s orbital planes. The lunar orbital plane tilts at a mean angle of 5.145 degrees with the orbital plane held by Earth around the sun. The tilting accounts for many monthly missed shadows cast between Earth and moon. Proximity to a node allows for capture of the new moon’s shadow for a solar eclipse and of the Earth’s shadow, during the moon’s full phase, for a lunar eclipse.

The nodes are identified as ascending and descending. The ascending node marks the moon’s south-to-north crossing of the ecliptic, the imaginary line marking the sun’s apparent annual path. The ecliptic is coplanar with Earth’s orbit. The descending node registers the moon’s north-to-south crossing of the ecliptic.

February’s annular solar eclipse, which is the first of 2017’s two solar eclipses, occurs at the descending node. The moon’s arrival at the descending node takes place Feb. 26 at 06:28 UT (1:28 a.m. Eastern Standard Time).

For an annular solar eclipse, the moon’s orbital point is around the month’s apogee, or farthest center-to-center distance from Earth. Placement at apogee creates sufficient distance for the moon’s antumbral shadow to touch Earth’s surface. As one of the three distinct areas of a shadow, the antumbral cone extends beyond the dark umbra and mediates between the two flanks of the penumbra.

February 2017’s new moon may appear as only slightly smaller than the sun that it is incompletely covering because the greatest eclipse happens about 7.7 days after apogee and about 4.7 days before perigee. February 2017’s moon marks the month’s apogee Saturday, Feb. 18, at 21:14 UT1, with a remoteness of 404,376 kilometers (251,267.5972 miles). The month’s perigee, or closest center-to-center distance between Earth and moon, takes place Friday, March 3, at 07:24 UT1, with a closeness of 369,065 kilometers (229,326.359 miles).

Sunlight blockage is complete in the umbra and partial in the antumbra and penumbra. The moon’s casting of its antumbra upon Earth yields an annular solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse results from the moon’s penumbra. The moon’s umbral shadow on Earth is responsible for a total solar eclipse.

The February 2017 new moon ring of fire makes a lengthwise trek of approximately 13,600 kilometers (8,450.6482 miles) across Earth. The width of the path of annularity is 30.6 kilometers (19.01396 miles). February 2017’s annular solar eclipse shadows 0.15 percent of the surface area of Earth.

The takeaway for the February 2017 new moon ring of fire is the dramatic visibility of the generally imperceptible new phase as a sunlight-ringed black circle over the solar eclipse’s South Atlantic Ocean-centered path of annularity.

visualization of three (annular, partial, total) of four types of solar eclipses, with their respective portions (antumbra, penumbra, umbra) of the lunar shadow; icons of black and yellow circles represent views of moon’s eclipse of sun: Cmglee, CC BY SA 3.0, 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:

annular solar eclipse captured by Hinode satellite, Jan. 4, 2011:  NASA/Hinode/XRT (X-Ray Telescope), Public Domain, via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/news20110106-annulareclipse.html

visualization of three (annular, partial, total) of four types of solar eclipses, with their respective portions (antumbra, penumbra, umbra) of the lunar shadow; icons of black and yellow circles represent views of moon’s eclipse of sun: Cmglee, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2017Feb26A.GIhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_eclipse_visualisation.svgF

For further information:

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/february-2017-annular-solar-eclipse.html

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