 
|
Annular Solar Eclipse of 2017 February 26
from Patagonia in Argentina or in Angola
|
|
|
|
To observe the 2017 February 26 annular eclipse in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere summer, I will most likely travel back to either Patagonia in Argentina along its mythical "Ruta 40" or else to Angola, leaving Chile as my quick in/out 4-day trip option. Indeed the inland weather prospects are better there at this time of the year than in Angola, in the midst of its rainy season; neverthless those argentinian locations can be extremely windy. Oceanfront regions in Angola are sunnier than those inland because of the cloud-suppressing effect of the cold Benguela Current that flows along the West African coast. However the Sun being much lower over the horizon, shortly before sunset, the risk of being clouded out is important.
This annular eclipse has a particular interest as its ring will be quite thin, which can help get nicer Baily’s beads and views of the chromosphere in a similar way as its predecessor of the Saros 140, namely the February 1999 annular in Australia.
In the days leading the annular, from February 22 to 24 an eclipse workshop will be held in Esquel, Argentina, at the Centro Cultural Esquel Melipal. An International Eclipse Conference organized by the Instituto Superior Técnico Militar (ISTM) is also held in Benguela, Angola, at the University of Katyavala Bwila during the week following the annular eclipse on Sunday.
You can use this solar eclipse calculator to compute the local circumstances of the eclipse, and the solar eclipse timer notifies the beginning of the various events. A time exposure calculator is there to help you choose your camera settings.
Click on thumbnails for a larger version
|
|
|
Eclipse circumstances
|
Average cloudiness in February
(courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
Average cloudiness in March
(courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
Annular eclipse animation
|
Average cloud cover along the path in February-March
over South America (courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
Average cloud cover graph along the path in February-March
over South America (courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
|
Average cloud cover along the path in February-March
over southern Africa (courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
Average cloud cover graph along the path in February-March
over southern Africa (courtesy of Jay Anderson)
|
|
Patagonia in Argentina
|
Stereographic projection map
|
Bentiaba beach in Angola
|
How to optimize your position using your smartphone
To know in real-time how good you’re doing in terms of position in relation to the the annularity path you can use this auto-tracking geolocation tool
http://xjubier.free.fr/ase2017map?Map=ROADMAP
or a more complex map (all the URL on one single line with no spaces)
http://xjubier.free.fr/xSE_GM?Ecl=+20170226&Acc=2&Umb=1&Lmt=1&Mag=1&Max=1&MapT=ROADMAP
Remove the ?Map=ROADMAP at the end of the URL if you want to stay in the default SATELLITE mode. Of course the map mode can still be selected once the map is loaded. And the road traffic can be displayed as well.
The tool has been tested with success on a variety of devices from iOS to Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. Nevertheless please report any problem you may encounter and don’t forget to provide a screenshot and a detailed description.
Then to activate the tool click on the lower icon on the left side, the one looking like a blueish shooting target  . Once activated you should be prompted to accept being geolocated, so answer positively and the map should center on your current position and track your movements (it will work as well on a desktop computer connected via an Ethernet cable and even better via Wi-Fi). To deactivate the tool and stop the tracking click again on the button.
Depending on your device you may have to authorize geolocation in the general settings as well. For example on iOS or OSX you should do so in the privacy settings.
The detailed circumstances bubble is disabled while the auto-tracking geolocation is activated in order not to clutter the screen too much.
More there
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/xSE_GoogleMap3_Help.html#geolocation.
|
|
The following pictures were taken in February 1999 and you can see they match the simulations quite well although those were done at low resolution. Observers who wanted to have both a complete ring and a nice display of Baily’s beads had to be well inside the path by about 8 kilometers, the village of Greenough being indeed barely qualified: some of them decided to go a few kilometers to the south to be on the safer side. Similar pictures can again be taken during this annular eclipse.
Beads and chromosphere can be seen on all the pictures that were taken without any solar filter. Note: not using any proper solar filter is not recommended unless you know exactly what you’s doing. If you are not experienced then please DO NOT ATTEMPT this and DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THE VIEWFINDER.
|
Picture taken without solar filter, about 13 seconds before second contact, by Fred Espenak from Greenough in Western Australia
Picture taken without solar filter, about 12 seconds after third contact, by Fred Espenak from Greenough in Western Australia
|
Picture taken without solar filter, about 9 seconds before second contact, by Fred Espenak from Greenough in Western Australia
Picture taken without solar filter, about 11 seconds after third contact, by Daniel Fischer from Greenough South in Western Australia
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Français
![Annular Solar Eclipse 2017](javascript:openSlideWindow(2, '../SlideWindow.html', '../../site_images/ASE_2017/', 'ASE_2017_GeneralCircumstances.jpg', 1, 7, 990, 1400, 'centered', 'Eclipse circumstances', '<hr width="100">For more information on solar eclipses, see the <a href="javascript:gotoEclipseWiseSolar();" class="ImageSlide">website of Fred Espenak</a>, retired from NASA.', 'en', 1);)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
Guest Book
