21st-century annular solar eclipse
An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit between Monday, June 10 and Tuesday, June 11, 2002, with a magnitude of 0.9962. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 6.4 days after apogee (on June 4, 2002, at 14:00 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
This was the second annular solar eclipse visible over the Pacific Ocean within 6 months.
Annularity was visible in Indonesia, Palau (Kayangel Atoll), and the Northern Mariana Islands on June 11 (Tuesday), and the western tip of Jalisco, Mexico, on June 10 (Monday). A partial eclipse was visible for parts of eastern Asia, northeastern Australia, North America, and Hawaii.
It was partially visible in some areas of the United States; in Ventura, in southern California, some observation stations were set up for public viewing. In Palm Desert, in the Coachella Valley, it was clearly visible, and it "got dark, it got cool, and it got eerie".A "solar eclipse party" in Fresno drew around 400 attendees, and as far north as Napa Valley, dozens of people went outside to watch the eclipse., and it was visible in Utah. Canada's "National Post" predicted a "substantial crowd" for Vancouver, despite the eclipse there being less than 60%; even in Victoria, where the eclipse was as low as 30%, dozens attended a show at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory.
Observations.
During this eclipse, the apex of the moon's umbral cone was close to the Earth's surface, and the magnitude was large. The edges of the moon and the sun were close to each other as seen from the Earth. Baily's beads on the lunar limb, which are usually only visible during a total solar eclipse, could also be seen. Since the path of annularity was mostly on the sea and covered very little land, and the Maluku sectarian conflict prevented many observers from going to the Maluku Islands, Indonesia, observations were mainly concentrated in Palau, Northern Mariana Islands and Mexico. A Japanese team made a live webcast on Tinian Island. The local weather was clear at sunrise. The sun was completely covered by clouds 20 minutes before the maximum eclipse, but finally came out from the clouds shortly before the maximum. In Mexico，because the annular eclipse occurred shortly before sunrise and the solar zenith angle was extremely low on land, many people observed at sea off the ports including Puerto Vallarta. However, the eclipse was mostly clouded out due to the Tropical Storm Boris, and it even rained in some places. The sun only appeared occasionally.
Eclipse details.
Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
Eclipse season.
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
Related eclipses.
Solar eclipses of 2000–2003.
This eclipse is a member of a 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.
The partial solar eclipses on February 5, 2000 and July 31, 2000 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set.
Saros 137.
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 137, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 70 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on May 25, 1389. It contains total eclipses from August 20, 1533 through December 6, 1695; the first set of hybrid eclipses from December 17, 1713 through February 11, 1804; the first set of annular eclipses from February 21, 1822 through March 25, 1876; the second set of hybrid eclipses from April 6, 1894 through April 28, 1930; and the second set of annular eclipses from May 9, 1948 through April 13, 2507. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on June 28, 2633. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth. 
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 11 at 2 minutes, 55 seconds on September 10, 1569, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 59 at 7 minutes, 5 seconds on February 28, 2435. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.
Metonic series.
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.
Tritos series.
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.
Inex series.
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.
References.
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External links.
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