A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Friday, July 1, 2011, with a magnitude of 0.0971. 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 partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.

This eclipse was the third of four partial solar eclipses in 2011, with the others occurring on January 4, June 1 and November 25.

This is the first solar eclipse of Saros series 156, only visible as a partial solar eclipse in a small area south of South Africa and north of Antarctica. It is the first new saros series to begin since saros 155 began with the partial solar eclipse of June 17, 1928.

Images

Animated path

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.

July 1, 2011 Solar Eclipse Times
EventTime (UTC)
First Penumbral External Contact2011 July 1 at 07:54:48.7 UTC
Greatest Eclipse2011 July 1 at 08:39:30.3 UTC
Ecliptic Conjunction2011 July 1 at 08:55:01.7 UTC
Equatorial Conjunction2011 July 1 at 09:06:38.7 UTC
Last Penumbral External Contact2011 July 1 at 09:23:55.6 UTC
July 1, 2011 Solar Eclipse Parameters
ParameterValue
Eclipse Magnitude0.09710
Eclipse Obscuration0.03573
Gamma−1.49171
Sun Right Ascension06h40m01.7s
Sun Declination+23°07'05.9"
Sun Semi-Diameter15'43.9"
Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax08.6"
Moon Right Ascension06h39m02.0s
Moon Declination+21°42'47.5"
Moon Semi-Diameter15'38.6"
Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax0°57'24.6"
ΔT66.4 s

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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Eclipse season of June–July 2011
June 1 Descending node (new moon)June 15 Ascending node (full moon)July 1 Descending node (new moon)
Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 118Total lunar eclipse Lunar Saros 130Partial solar eclipse Solar Saros 156

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2011

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 156

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 2008–2011

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 eclipses on June 1, 2011 and November 25, 2011 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2008 to 2011
Ascending nodeDescending node
SarosMapGammaSarosMapGamma
121 Partial in Christchurch, New ZealandFebruary 7, 2008 Annular−0.95701126 Totality in Kumul, Xinjiang, ChinaAugust 1, 2008 Total0.83070
131 Annularity in Palangka Raya, IndonesiaJanuary 26, 2009 Annular−0.28197136 Totality in Kurigram District, BangladeshJuly 22, 2009 Total0.06977
141 Annularity in Jinan, Shandong, ChinaJanuary 15, 2010 Annular0.40016146 Totality in Hao, French PolynesiaJuly 11, 2010 Total−0.67877
151 Partial in PolandJanuary 4, 2011 Partial1.06265156July 1, 2011 Partial−1.49171

Saros 156

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 156, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 69 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on July 1, 2011. It contains annular eclipses from September 26, 2155 through April 7, 3075. There are no hybrid or total eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 69 as a partial eclipse on July 14, 3237. 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 annularity will be produced by member 29 at 8 minutes, 28 seconds on May 3, 2516. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.

Series members 1–11 occur between 2011 and 2200:
123
July 1, 2011July 11, 2029July 22, 2047
456
August 2, 2065August 13, 2083August 24, 2101
789
September 5, 2119September 15, 2137September 26, 2155
1011
October 7, 2173October 18, 2191

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.

22 eclipse events between September 12, 1931 and July 1, 2011
September 11–12June 30–July 1April 17–19February 4–5November 22–23
114116118120122
September 12, 1931June 30, 1935April 19, 1939February 4, 1943November 23, 1946
124126128130132
September 12, 1950June 30, 1954April 19, 1958February 5, 1962November 23, 1965
134136138140142
September 11, 1969June 30, 1973April 18, 1977February 4, 1981November 22, 1984
144146148150152
September 11, 1988June 30, 1992April 17, 1996February 5, 2000November 23, 2003
154156
September 11, 2007July 1, 2011

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.

The partial solar eclipse on October 24, 2098 (part of Saros 164) is also a part of this series but is not included in the table below.

Series members between 1801 and 2011
February 11, 1804 (Saros 137)January 10, 1815 (Saros 138)December 9, 1825 (Saros 139)November 9, 1836 (Saros 140)October 9, 1847 (Saros 141)
September 7, 1858 (Saros 142)August 7, 1869 (Saros 143)July 7, 1880 (Saros 144)June 6, 1891 (Saros 145)May 7, 1902 (Saros 146)
April 6, 1913 (Saros 147)March 5, 1924 (Saros 148)February 3, 1935 (Saros 149)January 3, 1946 (Saros 150)December 2, 1956 (Saros 151)
November 2, 1967 (Saros 152)October 2, 1978 (Saros 153)August 31, 1989 (Saros 154)July 31, 2000 (Saros 155)July 1, 2011 (Saros 156)

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.

Series members between 1801 and 2069
November 18, 1808 (Saros 149)October 29, 1837 (Saros 150)October 8, 1866 (Saros 151)
September 18, 1895 (Saros 152)August 30, 1924 (Saros 153)August 9, 1953 (Saros 154)
July 20, 1982 (Saros 155)July 1, 2011 (Saros 156)
May 20, 2069 (Saros 158)

External links