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Eclipse Magnitude and Obscuration

 

Use the third scollbar ("Moon Center") to move the Moon. The eclipse magnitude is defined as the fraction of the Sun's diameter occulted by the Moon, and the eclipse obscuration as the fraction of the Sun's surface area occulted by the Moon. The area covered by the the moon can easily be computed:    The area of the segment is: The secant P1P2 is at: and the angles are: Diameters: dMoon/dSun= 1 Diameters: dMoon/dSun= 1.1 (total eclipse) Diameters: dMoon/dSun= 0.9 (annular eclipse) Diameters: dMoon/dSun= 0.9, 1.0, and 1,1 Select Data from the menu to get this window:

Magnitudes of Solar Eclipses 2006 - 2010 (Fred Espeneak):

2006 Mar 29	1.052	Total
2006 Sep 22	0.935	Annular
2007 Mar 19	0.874	Partial
2007 Sep 11	0.749	Partial
2008 Feb 07	0.965	Annular
2008 Aug 01	1.039	Total
2009 Jan 26	0.928	Annular
2009 Jul 22	1.080	Total
2010 Jan 15	0.919	Annular
2010 Jul 11	1.058	Total

Web Links

Calculating the area of the Sun covered during an eclipse Javascript Eclipse Calculator V3.2b2 Solar Eclipse Page (Fred Espenak)

(c) 2006-2008 J. Giesen

Modified: 2010, Mar 07