First of Two 2022 Partial Solar Eclipses Occurs Saturday, April 30

Summary: The first of two 2022 partial solar eclipses occurs Saturday, April 30, as a Southern Hemisphere event that favors the Pacific and Southern oceans.

details of partial solar eclipse Saturday, April 30, 2022: Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) Emeritus, via NASA Eclipse Web Site

The first of two 2022 partial solar eclipses occurs Saturday, April 30, as a Southern Hemisphere event that opens the year's lineup of four eclipses and that favors the Pacific and Southern oceans.

As viewed from Earth, the intervention of the moon between Earth and the sun triggers a solar eclipse. In a partial solar eclipse, the moon incompletely obscures the solar disk.

The partial solar eclipse that occurs Saturday, April 30, 2022, opens the year's lineup of four eclipses as the first of two partial solar eclipses and precedes the first of the year's two total lunar eclipses. The year's second partial solar eclipse, taking place Tuesday, Oct. 25, sequences as the third of the year's four eclipses. The year's two total lunar eclipses, occurring Monday, May 16, and Tuesday, Nov. 8, numbers as the year's second and fourth, closing eclipses, respectively.

April's partial solar eclipse is the only one of the year's four eclipses that exclusively favors the Southern Hemisphere. The year's second partial solar eclipse exclusively favors the Northern Hemisphere, while both of the year's total lunar eclipses offer varying degrees of visibility to both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Continentally, the year's first partial solar eclipse favors southern South America and northern fringes of West Antarctica. Oceanically, April's partial solar eclipse restricts visibility to parts of the central and eastern South Pacific Ocean and of the Southern Ocean and to a slice of the southwestern Atlantic Ocean along southeasternmost South America's Patagonian coast.

First contact between Earth's surface and the lunar penumbra (P1) initiates April's partial solar eclipse. First contact occurs Saturday, April 30, at 18:45:13.2 Universal Time (2:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), according to NASA astrophysicist, now emeritus, Fred Espenak's eclipse predictions on the NASA Eclipse Web Site.

Greatest eclipse (GE) references the instant of closest passage of the lunar shadow cone's axis to Earth's center. Greatest eclipse happens at 20:41:20.2 UT (4:41 p.m. EDT).

Greatest eclipse will occur over the Southern Ocean, southwest of Drake Passage. The treacherously high-waved passage lies between Antarctica's South Shetland Islands and South America's Chilean Tierra del Fuego ("Land of Fire; Fireland") archipelago.

Last contact between Earth and the lunar penumbra (P4) signals the April partial solar eclipse's completion. April's partial solar eclipse ends at 22:37:56.0 UT (6:37 p.m. EDT).

Chile's Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui; Spanish: Isla de Pascua) in the southeastern Pacific Ocean falls within the April event's all visibility region. The partial solar eclipse begins Saturday, April 30, at 2:04:03 p.m. Easter Island Standard Time (EAST), according to the Time and Date website. Greatest eclipse occurs at 3:04:12 p.m. EAST. The partial solar eclipse ends at 4:01:39 p.m. EAST with the moon's apparent departure from the sun's edge, thereby effecting Earth's exit from the lunar penumbra.

The British Overseas Territory of the Falkland Islands archipelago (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean experiences incomplete visibility of April's partial solar eclipse. Time and Date cautions that the sun's placement close to the horizon during the eclipse necessitates observation from an unobstructed site with clear views to the west-northwest.

Time and Date places the Saturday, April 30, event's start at 5:01:26 p.m. Falkland Islands Summer Time (FKST) for Stanley, the archipelago's capital, located on the northeastern coast of the archipelago's largest island, East Falkland (Spanish: Isla Soledad). Stanley experiences greatest eclipse at 5:31:37 p.m. FKST. Sunset begins at 5:35:22 p.m. FKST. Stanley misses the partial solar eclipse's end, which occurs below the horizon, at 7:09:42 p.m. FKST.

Located off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, Anvers Island's Palmer Station experiences incomplete visibility of April's partial solar eclipse. The Time and Date website notes that the sun's closeness to the horizon requires unobstructed observations sites with clear views to the northwest.

The U.S. research station witnesses the eclipse's commencement Saturday, April 30, at 4:31:12 p.m. Chile Summer Time (CLST). Greatest eclipse occurs at 4:58:44 p.m. CLST. Sunset at 5:04:52 p.m. CLST augurs non-visibility of the partial solar eclipse's below-horizon end at 6:45:16 p.m. CLST.

The takeaways for the Saturday, April 30, occurrence of the first of two 2022 partial solar eclipses are that April's partial solar eclipse opens the year's lineup of two partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses; that the year's second partial solar eclipse sequences between the year's two total lunar eclipses; and that April's partial solar eclipse occurs as the year's only exclusively Southern Hemisphere eclipse.

animation of partial solar eclipse Saturday, April 30, 2022: A.T. Sinclair/NASA 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:

details of partial solar eclipse Saturday, April 30, 2022: Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) Emeritus, via NASA Eclipse Web Site @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2022Apr30P.GIF

animation of partial solar eclipse Saturday, April 30, 2022: A.T. Sinclair/NASA via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SE2022Apr30P.gif

For further information:

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

Espenak, Fred. “Key to Global Map of Solar Eclipses.” EclipseWise > Solar Eclipses.
Available @ https://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEhelp/SEsarcatkey.html

Espenak, Fred. "Key to Solar Eclipse Decade Table." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEdecade/SEdecadetabkey.html

Espenak, Fred. "Partial Solar Eclipse of 2022 Apr 30." EclipseWise > Solar Eclipses > Recent and Upcoming Solar Eclipses > Decade Tables of Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipses: 2021-2030.
Available @ http://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/2001-2100/SE2022Apr30Pprime.html

Espenak, Fred. "Partial Solar Eclipse of 2022 Apr 30." NASA Eclipse Web Site > Solar Eclipses > Solar Eclipses: Past and Future > Decade Solar Eclipse Tables > Solar Eclipses: 2021-2030.
Available @ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2022Apr30P.GIF

Jubier, Xavier M. "Solar Eclipse of April 30 2022." The SkyLive > Solar Eclipses.
Available @ https://theskylive.com/solar-eclipse?id=2022-04-30

Marriner, Derdriu. "Partial Solar Eclipse Aug. 11 Is Third of Three 2018 Solar Eclipses." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/partial-solar-eclipse-aug-11-is-third.html

Time and Date. "April 30, 2022 -- Partial Solar Eclipse -- Easter Island, Chile (Rapa Nui)." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses > Easter Island, Chile.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/chile/easter-island?iso=20220430

Time and Date. "April 30, 2022 -- Partial Solar Eclipse -- Palmer Station, Antarctica." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses > Palmer Station, Antarctica.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/antarctica/palmer-station?iso=20220430

Time and Date. "April 30, 2022 -- Partial Solar Eclipse -- Stanley, Falkland Islands." Time and Date > Sun & Moon > Eclipses > Stanley, Falkland Islands.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/falkland/stanley?iso=20220430

Time and Date. "Time Zone Converter -- Time Difference Calculator (Classic)." Time and Date > Time Zones.
Available @ https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html