Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006

Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006
	320px Totality from Side, Turkey
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.3843
Magnitude	1.0515
Maximum eclipse
Duration	247 sec (4 m 7 s)
Coordinates	Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Max. width of band	184 km (114 mi)
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin	7:36:50
(U1) Total begin	8:34:20
Greatest eclipse	10:12:23
(U4) Total end	11:47:55
(P4) Partial end	12:45:35
References
Saros	139 (29 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9521

A total solar eclipse occurred on March 29, 2006. 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. It was visible from a narrow corridor which traversed half the Earth. The magnitude, that is, the ratio between the apparent sizes of the Moon and that of the Sun, was 1.052, and it was part of Saros 139.

Visibility

Animated path

The path of totality of the Moon's shadow began at sunrise in Brazil and extended across the Atlantic to Africa, traveling across Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya, and a small corner of northwest Egypt, from there across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece (Kastellórizo) and Turkey, then across the Black Sea via Georgia, Russia, and Kazakhstan to Western Mongolia, where it ended at sunset. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including the northern two-thirds of Africa, the whole of Europe, and Central Asia.

Observations

People gathered in large areas where solar eclipse is visible around the World to view the event. Manchester Astronomical Society, the Malaysian Space Agency, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as well as dozens of tour groups met at the Apollo temple and the theater in Side, Turkey. The San Francisco Exploratorium featured a live webcast from the site, where thousands took their seats in the ancient, Roman-style theater.^[1]

Almost all actively visited areas in the path of totality had perfect weather. Many observers reported an unusually beautiful eclipse, with many or all effects visible, and a very nice corona despite proximity to solar minimum. The partial phase of the eclipse was also visible from the International Space Station, while the astronauts on board took spectacular pictures of the shadow on the Earth's surface. At first, it looked as though an orbit correction in the middle of March would bring the ISS in the path of totality, but this correction was postponed.

Gallery

Sahara, Libya, 10:11 UTC
Smolyan, Bulgaria, 10:30 UTC
Diamondring-eclipse-March03-29-2006.jpg

Side, Turkey, 10:55 UTC
International Space Station over Turkey and Cyprus, 10:56:55 UTC
Berkhamsted, England, 11:01 UTC
Novosibirsk, Russia, 11:42 UTC
Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 12:21 UTC
Kalmykia, Russia, 12:22 UTC
Degania Alef, Israel : The Solar Eclipse

Satellite failure

The satellite responsible for SKY Network Television, a New Zealand pay TV company, failed the day after this eclipse at around 1900 local time. While SKY didn't directly attribute the failure to the eclipse, they said in a media release that it took longer to resolve the issue because of it, but this claim was refuted by astronomers. The main reason for the failure was because of an aging and increasingly faulty satellite.^[2]

Related eclipses

This solar eclipse was preceded by the penumbral lunar eclipse on March 14, 2006.

Solar eclipses 2004-2008

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 2004–2007
Saros	Map	Saros	Map
Ascending node\|124	2004 October 14 Partial (north)
129	Descending node
119	2004 April 19 Partial (south)	2005 April 8 Hybrid	134 Annular from Spain	2005 October 3 Annular
139 150px Totality from Side, Turkey	2006 March 29 Total	144 Partial from São Paulo, Brazil	2006 September 22 Annular
149	2007 March 19 Partial (north)	154	2007 September 11 Partial (south)

Saros 139

It is a part of saros series 139, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 17, 1501. It contains hybrid eclipses on August 11, 1627 through December 9, 1825 and total eclipses from December 21, 1843 through March 26, 2601. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 3, 2763. Members in the same column are one exeligmos apart and thus occur in the same geographic area.

The solar eclipse of June 13, 2132 will be the longest total solar eclipse since July 11, 1991 at 6 minutes, 55 seconds.

The longest duration of totality will be produced by member 39 at 7 minutes, 29 seconds on July 16, 2186.^[3] This is the longest solar eclipse computed between 4000BC and 6000AD.^[4]

Series members 24-39 occur between 1901 and 2200:

24	25	26
February 3, 1916	February 14, 1934	February 25, 1952
27	28	29
March 7, 1970	March 18, 1988	March 29, 2006
30	31	32
April 8, 2024	April 20, 2042	April 30, 2060
33	34	35
May 11, 2078	May 22, 2096	June 3, 2114
36	37	38
June 13, 2132	June 25, 2150	July 5, 2168
39
July 16, 2186

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).

This series has 20 eclipse events between June 10, 1964 and August 21, 2036.

June 10–11	March 27–29	January 15–16	November 3	August 21–22
117	119	121	123	125
150px June 10, 1964	March 28, 1968	January 16, 1972	November 3, 1975	August 22, 1979
127	129	131	133	135
June 11, 1983	March 29, 1987	January 15, 1991	November 3, 1994	August 22, 1998
137	139	141	143	145
June 10, 2002	March 29, 2006	January 15, 2010	November 3, 2013	August 21, 2017
147	149	151	153	155
June 10, 2021	March 29, 2025	January 14, 2029	November 3, 2032	August 21, 2036