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Partial solar eclipse Feb. 7, 2008: New Zealand and SE Australia

by William Atkins

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Skygazers in all of New Zealand and southeastern Australia will see a partial eclipse of the Sun in the afternoon on Thursday, February 7, 2008.

The first eclipse of 2008 will travel over Antarctica and the waters surrounding the continent. There are no permanent human residents in these areas; however, travelers to these areas will get the best view of the eclipse.

Luckily, sky observers in New Zealand and parts of Australia will be able to see the partial solar eclipse.

The partial solar eclipse on February 7 will find the Moon, at a new Moon phase, passing partially between the Earth and the Sun—as seen in New Zealand and the southeastern parts of Australia. The Moon will hide a portion of the Sun—making it a “partial” eclipse.

Also, in this case, the solar eclipse is called an “annular” eclipse because when the Moon passes in front of the Sun it doesn’t completely hide it (its smaller in apparent size from the Sun).

The outer fringes (called the annulus) of the Sun will be seen surrounding the Moon in the middle of the eclipse. Unfortunately, this event will only appear in and around the unpopulated Antarctica and surrounding Southern Ocean areas at Earth’s southern polar region.

The annular phase runs from 03:19:43 to 04:30:55 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

People in New Zealand and Australia will not see this annular solar eclipse. However, they will see a partial solar eclipse. The partial eclipse will be visible over most of Antarctica, southeastern Australia, and New Zealand, generally, between 01:38:29 and 06:11:55 a.m. GMT.

For instance, in Auckland, New Zealand, the partial eclipse begins at about 4:48 p.m. (Pacific/Auckland) local time (3:48 a.m. GMT) and ends at about 6:51 p.m. (5:51 a.m. GMT), a little more than two hours later.

When the partial eclipse covers up the maximum amount of the Sun in Auckland, the Sun will be hidden by about 47%, which occurs at about 5:52 p.m. local time.

Remember to be safe while observing the eclipse. Do not look directly at the Sun with the naked eye, camera, binocular, or telescope. This direct type of viewing of the eclipse can damage your eyes, and can even cause the possibility of blindness. Always project the Sun’s image onto a screen with the use of a telescope or pin-hole camera.

A computer-generated image of the solar eclipse on February 7, 2008 is found at: http://www.eclipse.org.uk/eclipse/0132008/. Local conditions can be called up for the event from this site.

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