Partial solar eclipse of February 15, 2018
A partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Chile, Argentina and Antarctica on February 15, 2018. The greatest eclipse will take place at 20:52 UTC.
The Moon will pass in front of the Sun today, creating a solar eclipse. However, the alignment will not be very exact, so the Moon will only partially cover the Sun, and nowhere on Earth will see a total eclipse.
This is the first solar eclipse of 2018, preceded two weeks earlier by a total lunar eclipse on January 31, 2018, and it occurs in Capricornus at the Moon's descending node.
This Southern Hemisphere event is visible from a wedge-shaped region in the Antarctic Ocean that includes 2/3 of Antarctica and southern South America.
The instant of greatest eclipse takes place on February 15, 2018 at 20:52 UTC, 4.3 days after the Moon reaches apogee. During the eclipse, the Sun is in the constellation Capricornus. The synodic month in which the eclipse takes place has a Brown Lunation Number of 1177.
This is a very deep partial eclipse with a magnitude of 0.5991, while Gamma has a value of -1.2116.
This event is the 17th eclipse of Saros 150. The family will produce 22 partial eclipses, followed by 40 annular eclipses and ending with 9 more partials. The entire series of 69 eclipses spans the years 1729 through 2991.
Please remember that observing the Sun can be very dangerous if it is not done with the right equipment. Even partial solar eclipses can only be safely observed with a special solar filter or by looking at the Sun's reflection.
Useful links for this partial solar eclipse
- Orthographic Map: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2018 Feb 15 – detailed map of eclipse visibility
- Animated Map: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2018 Feb 15 – animated map of the Moon's shadows across Earth
- Google Map: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2018 Feb 15 – interactive map of the eclipse path
- Circumstances Table: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2018 Feb 15 – eclipse times for hundreds of cities
- Saros 150 Table – data for all eclipses in the Saros series
Featured image credit: Dominic Ford
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