Solar eclipse of October 14, 2023

An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of orbit on Saturday, October 14, 2023, with a magnitude of 0.952. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 4.6 days after apogee (on October 10, 2023, at 4:40 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.

Annularity was visible from parts of Oregon, California, Nevada, extreme southwestern Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, eastern coastal Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. A partial eclipse was visible for most of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Visibility

United States

The path of the eclipse crossed the United States beginning in Oregon, entering at Dunes City, and passing over Newport, Crater Lake National Park, Eugene (passing over University of Oregon), and Medford. After passing over the northeast corner of California (in Modoc National Forest), it traveled through Nevada (passing over Black Rock Desert, Winnemucca and Elko) and Utah (passing over Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Bluff). After that, it covered the northeast corner of Arizona (including Kayenta) and the southwest corner of Colorado (including Cortez and the Ute Mountain Reservation). In New Mexico, it passed over Farmington, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell, Hobbs, and Carlsbad. Afterwards, it entered Texas, passing over Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Kerrville, San Antonio and Corpus Christi before entering the Gulf of Mexico. This was the second annular eclipse visible from Albuquerque in 11 years, where it crossed the path of the May 2012 eclipse. It also coincided with the last day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

A total solar eclipse crossed the United States in April 2024 (12 states) (Saros 139, Ascending Node), and a future solar eclipse will cross in August 2045 (10 states) (Saros 136, Descending Node). An annular solar eclipse will occur in June 2048 (9 states) (Saros 128, Descending Node).

Mexico

In Mexico, the eclipse path passed over the Yucatán Peninsula, covering San Francisco de Campeche in Campeche, Oxkutzcab in Yucatán (coming close to Mérida), and Chetumal in Quintana Roo.

Western Caribbean

In Western Cuba, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica all saw a partial eclipse (50% and above). The greatest of the partial eclipse was seen over Western Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Central America

In Guatemala, the eclipse passed over the extreme northeastern tip of Petén Department. In Belize, the eclipse passed over Belmopan and Belize City before leaving land again; when it entered in Honduras, it passed over La Ceiba and Catacamas, and in Nicaragua it passed over Bluefields. The point of greatest eclipse occurred near the coast of Nicaragua. After that, in Costa Rica it passed over Limon, and in Panama it passed over Santiago and came close to Panama City. Its point of greatest duration occurred just off the coast of Nata, Panama.

South America

In South America, the eclipse entered Colombia from the Pacific Ocean and passed over Pereira, Armenia, Cali, Ibagué and Neiva. In Brazil, it passed over the states of Amazonas (covering Fonte Boa, Tefé and Coari), Pará (covering Parauapebas and Xinguara), Tocantins (Araguaína) Maranhão (Balsas), Piauí (Picos), Ceará (Juazeiro do Norte), Pernambuco (Araripina), Paraíba (João Pessoa) and Rio Grande do Norte (Natal) before ending in the Atlantic Ocean.

Eclipse timing

Places experiencing annular eclipse

Places experiencing partial eclipse

Galleries

Videos and sequences

• Animation of the Moon's shadow moving across Earth; captured from the GOES-16 satellite.
• Annular Eclipse timelapse video from Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Composite of nine images taken in Hondo, Texas
• Progression of eclipse taken from fixed camera location taken in Petroglyph National Monument

Annularity

• Winnemucca, Nevada, USA
• Mexican Hat, Utah, USA
• Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
• Annularity in the H-Alpha part of the spectrum. White Rock, NM
• Villanueva, New Mexico, USA
• Annularity in Hobbs, New Mexico, USA
• Hondo, Texas, USA
• Campeche, Mexico
• Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, Brazil
• Playa Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

Partiality

• Izard County, Arkansas, USA
• Fremont, California, USA
• Santa Ana, California, USA
• Boise, Idaho, USA
• Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma, USA
• Kerrville, Texas, USA
• Belleville, Ontario, Canada
• Apodi, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
• Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
• Pedra Mole, Sergipe, Brazil
• San Salvador, El Salvador
• Tres Ríos, Cartago, Costa Rica.

Projections

• Salina, Utah. USA.
• Riohacha, La Guajira, Colombia

Citizen science

During the annular and total eclipses of 2023 and 2024, the GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), through the GLOBE Observer app, sought to collect information on air temperature, clouds, and wind. During the August 2017 eclipse, citizen scientists contributed with over 80,000 observations of air temperature and 20,000 cloud observations.

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 2023

• A hybrid solar eclipse on April 20.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on May 5.
• An annular solar eclipse on October 14.
• A partial lunar eclipse on October 28.

Metonic

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 26, 2019
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 2, 2027

Tzolkinex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 1, 2016
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of November 25, 2030

Half-Saros

• Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of October 8, 2014
• Followed by: Lunar eclipse of October 18, 2032

Tritos

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 12, 2034

Solar Saros 134

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 3, 2005
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 25, 2041

Inex

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 3, 1994
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 22, 2052

Triad

• Preceded by: Solar eclipse of December 13, 1936
• Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 15, 2110

Solar eclipses of 2022–2025

Saros 134

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 134, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 71 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on June 22, 1248. It contains total eclipses from October 9, 1428 through December 24, 1554; hybrid eclipses from January 3, 1573 through June 27, 1843; and annular eclipses from July 8, 1861 through May 21, 2384. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on August 6, 2510. 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 11 at 1 minutes, 30 seconds on October 9, 1428, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 52 at 10 minutes, 55 seconds on January 10, 2168. 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.

See also

• List of solar eclipses in the 21st century

External links

• Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• hosted by NASA and Exploratorium
• An educational site with overviews, maps, city data, events, animations, merchandise, historical information, and other resources for the 2023 eclipse and others.
• An educational site with comprehensive eclipse information, an eclipse simulator and other resources for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses.
• Jay Anderson (24 March 2024). . Eclipsophile. Archived from on 7 April 2024.
• Jay Anderson (30 April 2020). . Eclipsophile. Archived from on 13 October 2023.