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Home > Eclipses > Solar Eclipses > Annular Solar Eclipse of 2016 September 1^st

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Annular Solar Eclipse of 2016 September 1^st
from La Réunion Island

To observe the 2016 September 1^st annular eclipse, I was going to visit Madagascar and have some great time on the marvelous island with the best possible weather along the track particularly on its west coast. However late July 2016, due to unforeseen work constraints, I had to ditch my plans and switch over to a much shorter and far more flexible trip to La Réunion island.

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One can see on the maps below that to get the clearest possible sky you had to be located on the lee side of La Réunion island. This proved to be true during my short stay on the island and observations from the northern limit were cancelled due to the cloud cover. Map of the annual rainfall (in millimeters) and temperatures (°C) in La Réunion
The eclipse viewing occurred from the west coast of La Réunion in the gardens of the LUX* Saint-Gilles hotel. The sky was clear with some thin clouds. Simulation from first to fourth contact in Saint-Gilles-les-Bains, La Réunion
Between first and second contacts		Shortly before second contact
Shortly after second contact	Maximum eclipse	Reflexion at maximum eclipse	Shortly before third contact
Shortly after third contact	Between third and fourth contacts		Shortly before fourth contact
The following 50-minute time-lapse around maximum eclipse show the brightness variation during the solar eclipse when the obscuration of the solar disk by the Moon ranges from 67% to 94%.
One week after my 15-mile (25-kilometer) hike on the Piton de la Fournaise up to its Dolomieu crater rim, the volcano erupted. Panoramic view of the Dolomieu Crater on the Piton de la Fournaise volcano Panoramic opposite view of the Dolomieu Crater
View of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano
The cloud cover along the annular eclipse path was quite favorable. Cloud cover at 10:15 UTC on 2016 September 1^st in white light and infrared (images courtesy of sat24.com)