Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012

Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012
Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012
	Totality as seen from Mount Carbine, Queensland
	Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	−0.3719
Magnitude	1.05
Maximum eclipse
Duration	242 s (4 min 2 s)
Coordinates	40°00′S 161°18′W / 40°S 161.3°W
Max. width of band	179 km (111 mi)
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin	19:37:58
(U1) Total begin	20:35:08
Greatest eclipse	22:12:55
(U4) Total end	23:48:24
(P4) Partial end	0:45:34
References
Saros	133 (45 of 72)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9536

A total solar eclipse took place on 13–14 November 2012 (UTC).^[1]^[2] Because it crossed the International Date Line it began in local time on November 14 west of the date line over northern Australia, and ended in local time on November 13 east of the date line near the west coast of South America. Its greatest magnitude was 1.0500, occurring only 12 hours before perigee (Perigee on 2012 Nov 14 at 10:11:48 UTC), with greatest eclipse totality lasting just over four minutes. 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 the 45th eclipse of the 133rd Saros cycle, which began with a partial eclipse on July 13, 1219 and will conclude with a partial eclipse on September 5, 2499.

Summary of the total solar eclipse of 13 November 2012[edit]

Eclipse characteristics[edit]

Eclipse magnitude = 1.05004

Eclipse obscuration = 1.10259

Gamma = -0.37189

Saros Series = 133rd (45 of 72)

Conjunction times[edit]

Greatest eclipse = 13 Nov 2012 22:11:48.2 UTC (22:12:55.2 TD)

Ecliptic conjunction = 13 Nov 2012 22:07:59.9 UTC (22:09:06.9 TD)

Equatorial conjunction = 13 Nov 2012 22:18:04.7 UTC (22:19:11.7 TD)

Geocentric coordinates of Sun and Moon[edit]

Sun right ascension = 15 hours, 18 minutes, 6.7 seconds

Moon right ascension = 15 hours, 17 minutes, 51.2 seconds

Earth's shadow right ascension = 3 hours, 18 minutes, 6.7 seconds

Sun declination = 18 degrees, 15 minutes, 2.6 seconds south of Celestial Equator

Moon declination = 18 degrees, 37 minutes, 29.5 seconds south of Celestial Equator

Earth's shadow declination = 18 degrees, 15 minutes, 2.6 seconds north of Celestial Equator

Sun diameter = 1939.8 arcseconds

Moon diameter = 2004.8 arcseconds

Geocentric libration of Moon[edit]

Latitude: 1.0 degrees south

Longitude: 0.5 degrees east

Direction: 16.5 (NNE)

Visibility[edit]

For this eclipse, totality was visible from northern Australia to about 470 km north of the Chilean Juan Fernández Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean where totality ended. The most populous city to experience totality was Cairns, which had around 2 minutes of totality an hour after daybreak (06:39 AEST, 20:39 UTC) with the sun at an altitude of 14°.^[3] Norfolk Island, a small Pacific island east of Australia, experienced a partial eclipse with a maximum eclipse of 98% of the sun obscured at 08:37 NFT and an altitude of 42°.

New Zealand experienced a partial eclipse. Auckland had 84.8% of the sun obscured, whereas Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin respectively had 71.2%, 61.9% and 52.9% of the sun obscured. Maximum eclipse over New Zealand occurred around 10:30 NZDT (21:30 UTC), with Auckland at 10:27, Wellington at 10:34, Christchurch at 10:35 and Dunedin at 10:36.^[4]^[5]

Most of Chile and parts of Argentina saw a partial eclipse at sunset. In some places over half the sun was obscured. In Chile, Talcahuano in Biobío saw 72% obscured, Castro in Los Lagos saw 56% obscured. Chilean coastal locations were ideally situated to observe an eclipsing sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Points further north, up to about Chañaral, saw the eclipse begin as the sun was setting.

West of the International Date Line the eclipse took place on the morning of November 14. The maximum eclipse totality, of duration 4 min 2 sec, occurred east of the International Date Line on November 13, approximately 2,000 km east of New Zealand, and 9,600 km west of Chile.

On the morning of November 14, skies in Auckland were cloudy, obscuring much of the eclipse, which peaked at 10:27 NZDT.^[6] Cloud also obscured the moment of totality at Cairns, disappointing many tourists that had flocked to the area. Eclipse chasers along the northern beaches up through to Port Douglas generally got a clear view, however.

Photo gallery[edit]

Video of total eclipse in Far North Queensland
Screenshot of NASA video viewed from northern Australia
Totality from Mount Carbine, Queensland, 20:33 UTC
Totality from Mount Mulligan, Queensland, 20:39 UTC
Totality from Port Douglas, Queensland, 20:40 UTC
Totality with Baily's beads in Mossman Gorge, Queensland, 20:40 UTC
Totality from Trinity Beach, Queensland, 20:41 UTC
Partial from Redcliffe, Queensland, 20:46 UTC
Partial from Adelaide, Australia, 20:47 UTC
Partial from Brisbane, Australia, 21:07 UTC
Partial from Eltham, Victoria, 21:07 UTC
Partial from Nouméa, New Caledonia, 21:09 UTC
Partial from Melbourne, Australia, 21:12 UTC
Partial from Tauranga, New Zealand, 21:23 UTC
Partial from Christchurch, New Zealand, 21:29 UTC
Eclipse projection from Wellington, New Zealand
Progression from Auckland, New Zealand

Related eclipses[edit]

Eclipses of 2012[edit]

An annular solar eclipse on May 20.
A partial lunar eclipse on June 4.
A total solar eclipse on November 13.
A penumbral lunar eclipse on November 28.

Solar eclipses of 2011–2014[edit]

This eclipse is a member of the 2011–2014 solar eclipse semester series. An eclipse 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.^[7]^{[Note 1]}

Solar eclipse series sets from 2011 to 2014
Saros	Map	Gamma	Saros	Map	Gamma
Descending node			Ascending node
118 Partial from Tromsø, Norway	2011 June 01 Partial (north)	1.21300	123 Hinode XRT footage	2011 November 25 Partial (south)	−1.05359
128 Middlegate, Nevada	2012 May 20 Annular	0.48279	133 Cairns, Australia	2012 November 13 Total	−0.37189
138 Churchills Head, Australia	2013 May 10 Annular	−0.26937	143 Partial from Libreville, Gabon	2013 November 03 Hybrid	0.32715
148 Partial from Adelaide, Australia	2014 April 29 Annular (non-central)	−0.99996	153 Partial from Minneapolis	2014 October 23 Partial (north)	1.09078

Saros 133[edit]

Solar Saros 133, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, contains 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on July 13, 1219. It contains annular eclipses from November 20, 1435, through January 13, 1526, with a hybrid eclipse on January 24, 1544. It has total eclipses from February 3, 1562, through June 21, 2373. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on September 5, 2499. The longest duration of totality was 6 minutes, 49.97 seconds on August 7, 1850.^[8] The total eclipses of this saros series are getting shorter and farther south with each iteration. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s ascending node.

Series members 30–56 occur between 1742 and 2211
30	31	32
June 3, 1742	June 13, 1760	June 24, 1778
33	34	35
July 4, 1796	July 17, 1814	July 27, 1832
36	37	38
August 7, 1850	August 18, 1868	August 29, 1886
39	40	41
September 9, 1904	September 21, 1922	October 1, 1940
42	43	44
October 12, 1958	October 23, 1976	November 3, 1994
45	46	47
November 13, 2012	November 25, 2030	December 5, 2048
48	49	50
December 17, 2066	December 27, 2084	January 8, 2103
51	52	53
January 19, 2121	January 30, 2139	February 9, 2157
54	55	56
February 21, 2175	March 3, 2193	March 15, 2211

Inex series[edit]

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.

Inex series members between 1901 and 2100:
January 14, 1926 (Saros 130)	December 25, 1954 (Saros 131)	December 4, 1983 (Saros 132)
November 13, 2012 (Saros 133)	October 25, 2041 (Saros 134)	October 4, 2070 (Saros 135)
September 14, 2099 (Saros 136)

Tritos series[edit]

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.

Series members between 1901 and 2100
September 21, 1903 (Saros 123)	August 21, 1914 (Saros 124)	July 20, 1925 (Saros 125)
June 19, 1936 (Saros 126)	May 20, 1947 (Saros 127)	April 19, 1958 (Saros 128)
March 18, 1969 (Saros 129)	February 16, 1980 (Saros 130)	January 15, 1991 (Saros 131)
December 14, 2001 (Saros 132)	November 13, 2012 (Saros 133)	October 14, 2023 (Saros 134)
September 12, 2034 (Saros 135)	August 12, 2045 (Saros 136)	July 12, 2056 (Saros 137)
June 11, 2067 (Saros 138)	May 11, 2078 (Saros 139)	April 10, 2089 (Saros 140)
March 10, 2100 (Saros 141)

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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.

21 eclipse events between June 21, 1982, and June 21, 2058
June 21	April 8–9	January 26	November 13–14	September 1–2
107	109	111	113	115
June 21, 1963	April 9, 1967	January 26, 1971	November 14, 1974	September 2, 1978
117	119	121	123	125
June 21, 1982	April 9, 1986	January 26, 1990	November 13, 1993	September 2, 1997
127	129	131	133	135
June 21, 2001	April 8, 2005	January 26, 2009	November 13, 2012	September 1, 2016
137	139	141	143	145
June 21, 2020	April 8, 2024	January 26, 2028	November 14, 2031	September 2, 2035
147	149	151	153	155
June 21, 2039	April 9, 2043	January 26, 2047	November 14, 2050	September 2, 2054
157
June 21, 2058