Solar eclipse of April 21, 2088

A total solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, April 21, 2088, with a magnitude of 1.0474. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.8 days before perigee (on April 23, 2088, at 5:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger.

The path of totality will be visible from parts of Cape Verde, Mauritania, Western Sahara, northern Mali, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and western China. A partial solar eclipse will also be visible for parts of eastern Canada, Greenland, Europe, West Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Note that the central line of this total solar eclipse follows a path extremely similar to that of the annular eclipse that occurred 112 years earlier on April 29, 1976.

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2088

• A total solar eclipse on April 21.
• A partial lunar eclipse on May 5.
• An annular solar eclipse on October 14.
• A partial lunar eclipse on October 30.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 3, 2084
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 7, 2092

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of March 10, 2081
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 2, 2095

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of April 16, 2079
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of April 26, 2097

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 22, 2077
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of March 21, 2099

Solar Saros 130

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of April 11, 2070
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 3, 2106

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of May 11, 2059
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of April 2, 2117

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 21, 2001
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of February 21, 2175

Solar eclipses of 2087–2090

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The partial solar eclipse on June 1, 2087 occurs in the previous lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 130

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 130, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on August 20, 1096. It contains total eclipses from April 5, 1475 through July 18, 2232. There are no annular or hybrid eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on October 25, 2394. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.

The longest duration of totality was produced by member 30 at 6 minutes, 41 seconds on July 11, 1619. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series

This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Notes

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC