Solar eclipse of July 11, 2010
Totality from French Polynesia
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	-0.6788
Magnitude	1.058
Maximum eclipse
Duration	5m 20s
Coordinates	19.7S 121.9W
Max. width of band	259 km
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin	17:09:41
(U1) Total begin	18:15:15
Greatest eclipse	19:34:38
(U4) Total end	20:51:42
(P4) Partial end	21:57:16
References
Saros	146 (27 of 76)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9530

The total solar eclipse of July 11, 2010, occurred over the southern Pacific Ocean.^[1] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially 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, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across the surface of the Earth, while a partial solar eclipse will be visible over a region thousands of kilometres wide.

Visibility [edit]

Animated map of the eclipse's visibility over the southern Pacific Ocean

The eclipse on this day was one of the most remote in recorded history. It was visible over much of the southern Pacific Ocean, touching several atolls in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, and Argentina's Patagonian plains.^[2]

Fred Espenak, a NASA astrophysicist, said:

"One of the most unique things about this particular eclipse is that it crosses a unique and interesting archaeological site: Easter Island. On Easter Island there are these great statues... There's a lot of mystery about these statues, but in any case, this is the first total eclipse to hit the island in about 1,400 years."^[3]

The best one occurred in French Polynesia, where it was seen in 98 percent, At the spectacular eclipse, The diamond ring effect and the Baily's beads happened.

It ended at sunset over the southern tips of Argentina and Chile in South America, including the town of El Calafate. The Sun's altitude was only 1° during the 2 minute 47 second total phase, but Argentino Lake offered an adequate line-of-sight to the eclipse hanging just above the rugged Andes skyline.^[1]

A 58% partiality occurred at sunset in Santiago, Chile, but it was not visible due to adverse weather conditions. In other cities such as Valparaíso and Coquimbo, clearer skies permitted the event to be witnessed in continental Chile.

Observations [edit]

Time lapse images of the eclipse as seen from mainland Chile

The moon's diameter was over 5% larger than the sun's, represented by the magnitude of eclipse of the table above, making for a relatively long eclipse duration of 5 minutes, 20 seconds.

Total eclipse began 700 kilometers (430 mi) southeast of Tonga at approximately 18:15 UTC and reached Easter Island by 20:11 UTC.^[4] The global sky photography project The World At Night stationed photographers throughout the eclipse's visibility track. Eclipse chasers photographed the event on board a chartered airplane, cruise ships, numerous Pacific islands, and in Argentina's Patagonia region. Totality was observed for four minutes and 41 seconds (4:41) on Easter Island,^[2] where it was observed for the first time in 1,400 years.^[5] Approximately 4,000 observers visited Easter Island for this eclipse, including tourists, scientists, photographers, filmmakers and journalists,^[6] prompting an increase in security at its important moai archeological sites. The eclipse occurred at the same time that the final game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was being played in South Africa, and many soccer fans in Tahiti watched the match instead of observing the partial eclipse with a high percentage of obscuring the sun by about 98 percent.^[4][7] The path of totality of this eclipse barely missed some significant inhabited islands, including passing just about 20 km north of the northern end of Tahiti.^{[citation needed]}

This eclipse was the first one to happen over French Polynesia in 350 years. An estimated 5,000 tourists visited various islands in the archipelago to observe the event. Nearly 120,000 pairs of special glasses were distributed for observers.^[8] Eclipse chasers were also able to observe the eclipse at El Calafate, near the southern tip of Argentina, before the sun set just two minutes later.^[2]

Several hours after the eclipse was observed in continental Chile, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck in the Antofagasta Region. There were no major injuries or damage in the nearby cities of Calama, Chile and San Pedro de Atacama.^[9]

Related eclipses [edit]

• It was preceded two weeks earlier by the partial lunar eclipse on June 26, 2010.
• In Saros cycle 146, this eclipse repeats every 18 years 11 days, previously on total solar eclipse of June 30, 1992 and next on total solar eclipse of July 22, 2028.
• In a tritos cycle, it repeats every 10 years 11 months, previous as the total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 and followed by the annular solar eclipse of June 10, 2021.
• The next total solar eclipse will occur on November 13, 2012. The path of totality ends about 500 km west of Chile but the eclipse will be partial on sundown from the coast, and 2000 km east of New Zealand.

Solar eclipses 2008–2011 [edit]

Each member 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.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2008–2011

Ascending node			Descending node
Saros	Map		Saros	Map
121 Partial from New Zealand	2008 February 7 Annular		126 Total from Novosibirsk, Russia	2008 August 1 Total
131 Bandar Lampung, Indonesia	2009 January 26 Annular		136 Total from Bangladesh	2009 July 22 Total
141 Bangui, Central African Republic	2010 January 15 Annular		146 Total from French Polynesia	2010 July 11 Total
151 Partial from Poland	2011 January 4 Partial (north)		156	2011 July 1 Partial (south)
Partial solar eclipses on June 1, 2011 and November 25, 2011 occur on the next lunar year eclipse set.

Metonic series [edit]

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).

This series has 21 eclipse events between July 11, 1953 and July 11, 2029.

July 10-11	April 29-30	February 15-16	December 4	September 21-23
116	118	120	122	124
July 11, 1953	April 30, 1957	February 15, 1961	December 4, 1964	September 22, 1968
126	128	130	132	134
July 10, 1972	April 29, 1976	February 16, 1980	December 4, 1983	September 23, 1987
136	138	140	142	144
July 11, 1991	April 29, 1995	February 16, 1999	December 4, 2002	September 22, 2006
146	148	150	152	154
July 11, 2010	April 29, 2014	February 15, 2018	December 4, 2021	September 21, 2025
156
July 11, 2029

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Solar eclipse of 2010 July 11

• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements
• NASA pdf map
  • NASA homepage for July 11 2010 total solar eclipse
  • NASA: Eclipses During 2010: Total Solar Eclipse of July 11
• Eclipser: 2010 July 11 Total Solar Eclipse
• Eclipse.org.uk: Total Eclipse of the Sun: 2010 July 11
• www.timeanddate.com Total Solar Eclipse To Occur on July 11, 2010
• www.spaceweather.com

v t e Solar eclipses Lists of eclipses Antiquity 20th century BC 19th century BC 18th century BC 17th century BC 16th century BC 15th century BC 14th century BC 13th century BC 12th century BC 11th century BC 10th century BC 9th century BC 8th century BC 7th century BC 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC 3rd century BC 2nd century BC 1st century BC 1st century 2nd century 3rd century 4th century 5th century 6th century 7th century 8th century 9th century 10th century 11th century 12th century 13th century 14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century 21st century 22nd century 23rd century 24th century 25th century 26th century 27th century 28th century 29th century 30th century Eclipses seen from: China the United Kingdom Philippines Saros series: 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 Historical eclipses Mursili's eclipse (1312 BC) Assyrian eclipse (763 BC) Battle of Halys (585 BC) Crucifixion darkness and eclipse Past total/hybrid eclipses 1560 Aug 21 1598 Mar 7 1652 Apr 8 1654 Aug 12 1699 Sep 23 1715 May 3 1724 May 22 1766 Feb 9 1778 Jun 24 1780 Oct 27 1806 Jun 16 1816 Nov 19 1820 Sep 7 1824 Jun 26 1842 Jul 8 1851 Jul 28 1853 Nov 30 1857 Mar 25 1858 Sep 7 1860 Jul 18 1865 Apr 25 1867 Aug 29 1868 Aug 18 1869 Aug 7 1870 Dec 22 1871 Dec 12 1874 Apr 16 1875 Apr 6 1878 Jul 29 1882 May 17 1883 May 6 1885 Sep 8 1886 Aug 29 1887 Aug 19 1889 Jan 1 1889 Dec 22 1893 Apr 16 1896 Aug 9 1898 Jan 22 1900 May 28 1901 May 18 1903 Sep 21 1904 Sep 9 1905 Aug 30 1907 Jan 14 1908 Jan 3 1908 Dec 23 1909 Jun 17 1910 May 9 1911 Apr 28 1912 Apr 17 1912 Oct 10 1914 Aug 21 1916 Feb 3 1918 Jun 8 1919 May 29 1921 Oct 1 1922 Sep 21 1923 Sep 10 1925 Jan 24 1926 Jan 14 1927 Jun 29 1928 May 19 1929 May 9 1930 Apr 28 1930 Oct 21 1932 Aug 31 1934 Feb 14 1936 Jun 19 1937 Jun 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