Annular Solar Eclipse - May 20, 2012

The annular solar eclipse of May 20, 2012 came after a string of four partial eclipses seen in 2011. The annular eclipse is much more exciting than any of the partial solar eclipses. The sun nearly totally obscured for four and a half minutes. The sun appeared as a bright ring in the sky with a central dark region. Annular eclipses always have far too much sunlight streaming past the moon, so eye protection is an absolute necessity at all times.

(Click on the eclipse path map to see a higher resolution view of the May 20 eclipse at the NASA website.)

The path of this annular eclipse arrived in the western United States with Eureka, California experiencing the event first. Redding, Ca, Reno and Carson City, Nevada saw it next. Unfortunately, Las Vegas was too far from the path and so only a partial eclipse was visible there. As partial eclipses go, Las Vegas had a good one. Visitors to the resort city wanting to see the show needed to head north for the annular eclipse. St. George, Utah saw it. Flagstaff, Arizona was just out of the shadow zone. People there needed to drive north to the Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon or Shonto in order to experience the annular eclipse. The Four Corners was within the eclipse path but in Colorado, only the city of Cortez was in the path. Even there, people should have traveled south towards the Four Corners to get a better experience. In New Mexico, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell were close to the center line of the eclipse. The event wrapped up in Texas where people in Lubbock and Midland were be able to view it.

While this eclipse passed through, or near to, many cities, it was known as the Reno Eclipse. Reno is a popular little city that happens to be located in the right place. Other cities may have the same experience but Reno had the key to this eclipse. Since it is not a total solar eclipse, the event was not an absolute "must see" for many astronomers. It got attention from many people due to the action of news channels as the big day approached. This attention naturally built until the event was a large news story on May 20.

This was an easy eclipse to view. The moon shadow passed over the Earth's surface through seven states. An annular solar eclipse offers some interesting experiences. Animals and insects may be fooled into thinking that the sun has set only to rise again in moments. Many of the features seen during a total solar eclipse were be visible in this annular eclipse. It's a chance to see a rare event in America, so if you saw the event, you were lucky to do so.

Good eclipse goggles are always a must so you can watch the whole annular eclipse. These will come in handy during future partial eclipses. If you're going to Australia in November for the total solar eclipse, your goggles will be useful for the partial eclipse phases before and after the total solar eclipse event. They will also be useful in 2017 when a total solar eclipse finally returns to North America. That eclipse is the big one which will dwarf the May 20 annular event. Start planning your agenda for the 2017 total solar eclipse, little more than 5 years away. You may want to consider viewing it near Cape Girardeau, the Eclipse Capital of the US or Carbondale, the US Solar Eclipse Center.

The annular solar eclipse starts when the shadow of the moon falls on the ground. The scientific tables describe this as Universal Time, or "UT". Use the table below to find out when the maximum eclipse occurs for your local time. Remember that you should be ready for the event well in advance of the time shown. Also, if it is cloudy, you are going to be out of luck.

Local Time

City

Duration

18:26:00 6:26pm

Medford Oregon

2m46sec

18:28:00

Eureka California

3m59sec

18:26:00

Redding California

3m59sec

18:31:00

Reno Nevada

4m26sec

19:30:00 7:30pm

St. George Utah

4m26sec

19:34:00

Albuquerque

4m26sec

19:35:00

Santa Fe New Mexico

3m33sec

20:36:00 8:36pm

Lubbock Texas

4m13sec

Those living outside of the annular eclipse path, (Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, etc), will see a partial eclipse. The amount of the sun eclipsed varies greatly depending on how far you are located from the central path. Vancouver sees about an 80% partial eclipse. East of Lubbock, Texas, the eclipse begins at sunset, which is to say, it is not visible there at all.

This annular eclipse event actually starts in Asia. Millions of people will experience the effect of the moon blocking out most of the sun's light as the shadow path covers Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Quanzhou in China. Taipei, Taiwan is also visited by the moon's shadow. The annular eclipse then tracks across the East China Sea before hitting Japan. There, the shadow tracks across the southeast portion. Tokyo and Yokohama are practically bisected by the center line of the eclipse. After Japan, the annular eclipse of May 20, 2012 again tracks across open ocean.

Click on the image to see the NASA map of this annular eclipse to see the entire track of the moon's shadow.

At the point of the greatest amount of eclipse coverage, the shadow path is located just south of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. In fact, the annular eclipse event just barely misses any Alaskan lands. The eclipse then tracks across the open ocean again before contacting the western United States. The initial contact is in Oregon with the first sizable settlement experiencing the annular eclipse being Bandon. Crescent City California is the first sizable settlement to experience the eclipse followed quickly by Eureka, CA. From there, Redding, CA and Reno, Nevada are the next large cities to be visited by the shadow of the moon during the 2012 annular eclipse. The California capital of Sacramento is located just outside the eclipse zone. San Francisco is perhaps 100 miles from the eclipse, 150 miles from the center path of the annular eclipse event. As mentioned elsewhere, Las Vegas misses the 2012 annular eclipse as does Phoenix and Denver. The annular eclipse travels across the western United States of Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico before finally ending in Texas. The city of Midland, Texas, is the last settlement to witness the effects of the May 20, 2012 annular solar eclipse.