A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, with a magnitude of 1.0515. 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. Occurring about 1.1 days after perigee (on March 28, 2006, at 8:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
This was the second solar eclipse visible in Africa within just 6 months.
Visibility
The path of totality of the Moon's shadow began at sunrise in Brazil and extended across the Atlantic to Africa, traveling across Ghana, the southeastern tip of Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya, and a small corner of northwest Egypt, from there across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece (Kastellórizo) and Turkey, then across the Black Sea via Georgia, Russia, and Kazakhstan to Western Mongolia, where it ended at sunset. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including eastern South America, the northern two-thirds of Africa, the whole of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia.
Observations People around the world gathered in areas where the eclipse was visible to view the event. The Manchester Astronomical Society, the Malaysian Space Agency, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as well as dozens of tour groups met at the Apollo temple and the theater in Side, Turkey. The San Francisco Exploratorium featured a live webcast from the site, where thousands of observers were seated in the ancient, Roman-style theater.Total Solar Eclipse: Live from Turkey in 2006
Almost all actively visited areas in the path of totality had perfect weather. Many observers reported an unusually beautiful eclipse, with many or all effects visible, and a very nice corona, despite the proximity to the solar minimum. The partial phase of the eclipse was also visible from the International Space Station, where the astronauts on board took spectacular pictures of the Moon's shadow on Earth's surface. It initially appeared as though an orbit correction set for the middle of March would bring the ISS into the path of totality, but this correction was postponed.
The Paris Observatory sent a team of students and coordinators to Savalou, Benin. The team took clear images of the corona. A team of Williams College, Massachusetts did many experiments and took images of the corona on the Greek island of Kastellórizo with 3 minutes of totality, which is close to the coast of Turkey and the only place in the European Union covered by the path of totality. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory also made auxiliary observations to compare images taken from space and from the ground. Another research simulated the changing colours of the sky in the path of totality with a three-dimensional model while considering multiple scattering. Monte Carlo method was used in the experiment to predict the colour and brightness of the sky. In addition, the direct irradiation of the corona was also studied. The goal was to plan and optimise studies on incoming solar irradiance.C. Emde, B. Mayer: Simulation of solar radiation during a total eclipse: a challenge for radiative transfer [28 August 2015] Russian scientists studied on coronal polarization in the Baksan River Gorge surrounded by snow mountains in the North Caucasus. The location has an altitude of 1,800 metres and is 25 kilometres from Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia and also Europe.
Libya under Muammar Gaddafi was under sanctions because of bombing the Pan Am Flight 103 and had a strict alcohol ban. It was the least visited region around the Mediterranean. To promote tourism, the Libyan government mobilized 5 state-owned tourism companies to attract more tourists, and built a tent village that could accommodate 7,000 people in Waw an Namus inside the Sahara Desert with excellent observation conditions. However, it was only open to astronomers, while ordinary tourists were directed to Patan, near the border with Egypt. Despite Libya's desire to attract tourists from all over the world, Israelis were still banned from entering the country. NASA scientists also did joint observation and research with Libyan scientists, taking images and videos.
A team of 20 people from the took images of Baily's beads, corona and prominences in Sallum, Egypt. The weather conditions were good in Sallum and also neighbouring Libya. Then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Minister of Defense Muhammad Tantawi and other officials also went there by helicopter and observed the eclipse with scientists and tourists.
Satellite failure
The satellite responsible for SKY Network Television, a New Zealand pay TV company, failed the day after this eclipse at around 1900 local time. While SKY didn't directly attribute the failure to the eclipse, they said in a media release that it took longer to resolve the issue because of it, but this claim was rejected by astronomers. The main reason for the failure was because of an aging and increasingly faulty satellite.Press release by Sky TV. Solar eclipse interferes with satellite restoration Friday, 31 March 2006.
Eclipse timing Places experiencing total eclipse Solar Eclipse of March 29, 2006(Local Times)Country or territory City or placeStart of partial eclipseStart of total eclipseMaximum eclipseEnd of total eclipseEnd of partial eclipseDuration of totality (min:s)Duration of eclipse (hr:min)Maximum magnitude Natal 05:23:42 (sunrise) 05:35:03 05:35:51 05:36:39 06:34:37 1:36 1:11 1.0078 Cape Coast 07:59:24 09:07:51 09:09:31 09:11:13 10:27:10 3:22 2:28 1.0184 Accra 08:00:49 09:10:05 09:11:33 09:13:00 10:29:44 2:55 2:29 1.0111 Atakpamé 08:04:58 09:15:04 09:16:46 09:18:28 10:35:53 3:24 2:31 1.0169 Bohicon 09:05:10 10:16:03 10:17:21 10:18:39 11:36:48 2:36 2:32 1.0078 Savè 09:06:55 10:17:42 10:19:29 10:21:16 11:39:15 3:34 2:32 1.019 Parakou 09:09:14 10:21:01 10:22:07 10:23:13 11:42:06 2:12 2:33 1.0052 Gusau 09:18:02 10:31:23 10:33:19 10:35:16 11:55:03 3:53 2:37 1.0253 Katsina 09:20:31 10:34:24 10:36:21 10:38:18 11:58:24 3:54 2:38 1.0229 Maradi 09:20:57 10:35:15 10:36:37 10:37:59 11:58:32 2:44 2:38 1.0075 Zinder 09:23:33 10:38:30 10:40:05 10:41:41 12:02:34 3:11 2:39 1.0106 Kaş 12:35:01 13:52:14 13:53:45 13:55:16 15:11:04 3:02 2:36 1.0101 Kemer 12:37:01 13:53:50 13:55:37 13:57:24 15:12:36 3:34 2:36 1.0168 Antalya 12:37:41 13:54:32 13:56:10 13:57:47 15:12:59 3:15 2:35 1.0125 Side 12:38:30 13:55:10 13:57:03 13:58:55 15:13:47 3:45 2:35 1.023 Alanya 12:39:05 13:56:23 13:57:42 13:59:00 15:14:23 2:37 2:35 1.0072 Konya 12:41:50 13:58:05 13:59:54 14:01:42 15:15:55 3:37 2:34 1.019 Kayseri 12:47:29 14:04:08 14:05:02 14:05:56 15:19:59 1:48 2:33 1.0035 Amasya 12:50:32 14:06:29 14:07:12 14:07:56 15:21:15 1:27 2:31 1.0024 Sukhumi 13:00:29 14:14:01 14:15:31 14:17:01 15:27:16 3:00 2:27 1.013 Pyatigorsk 14:04:15 15:17:08 15:18:29 15:19:50 16:29:15 2:42 2:25 1.0103 Mineralnye Vody 14:04:30 15:17:31 15:18:39 15:19:47 16:29:20 2:16 2:25 1.0067 Astrakhan 14:12:25 15:24:12 15:24:41 15:25:10 16:33:11 0:58 2:21 1.0015 Atyrau 15:17:31 16:27:10 16:28:37 16:30:04 17:35:44 2:54 2:18 1.0169 Arkalyk 16:33:32 17:38:14 17:39:31 17:40:47 18:41:26 2:33 2:08 1.0185 Astana 16:37:03 17:40:21 17:41:31 17:42:41 18:42:02 2:20 2:05 1.0144 Gorno-Altaysk 17:45:39 18:44:49 18:45:52 18:46:54 19:42:31 2:05 1:58 1.0159 Kyzyl 18:49:01 19:46:01 19:46:59 19:47:57 20:09:54 (sunset) 1:56 1:21 1.0158References:
Places experiencing partial eclipse Solar Eclipse of March 29, 2006(Local Times)Country or territory City or placeStart of partial eclipseMaximum eclipseEnd of partial eclipseDuration of eclipse (hr:min)Maximum coverage Fortaleza 05:36:28 (sunrise) 05:39:11 06:35:02 0:59 92.50% Monrovia 07:56:21 09:01:14 10:13:24 2:17 83.26% Abidjan 07:57:56 09:06:40 10:22:58 2:25 98.28% Yamoussoukro 07:59:35 09:07:47 10:23:29 2:24 91.68% Kumasi 08:01:36 09:11:50 10:29:34 2:28 99.07% Lomé 08:02:49 09:14:21 10:33:15 2:30 99.99% Porto-Novo 09:04:34 10:16:49 11:36:19 2:32 98.56% Lagos 09:05:09 10:17:43 11:37:26 2:32 96.95% Ouagadougou 08:11:40 09:22:18 10:39:58 2:28 84.04% Niamey 09:16:29 10:29:25 11:49:07 2:33 89.49% N'Djamena 09:28:28 10:46:07 12:08:40 2:40 81.07% Tobruk 11:19:32 12:39:11 13:59:00 2:39 99.83% Athens 12:30:22 13:47:10 15:03:43 2:33 84.05% Cairo 11:27:50 12:47:52 14:06:32 2:39 84.14% Sofia 12:38:46 13:52:08 15:05:05 2:26 70.56% Jerusalem 11:37:49 12:56:51 14:13:30 2:36 79.92% Bucharest 12:44:38 13:57:32 15:09:32 2:25 71.41% Nicosia 12:39:13 13:58:10 15:14:57 2:36 94.80% Amman 11:39:23 12:58:12 14:14:29 2:35 78.88% Beirut 12:41:05 13:59:54 15:16:11 2:35 86.11% Damascus 11:42:05 13:00:44 14:16:43 2:35 83.07% Ankara 12:45:22 14:02:28 15:17:27 2:32 97.74% Yerevan 15:03:03 16:18:20 17:29:41 2:27 89.99% Tbilisi 14:04:42 15:19:30 16:30:27 2:26 94.82% Baku 15:11:35 16:24:59 17:33:58 2:22 82.51% Oral 15:18:56 16:27:55 17:33:31 2:15 87.68% Aktobe 15:24:23 16:32:51 17:37:29 2:13 96.65% Omsk 17:37:19 18:39:59 19:39:14 2:02 88.78% Novosibirsk 17:42:33 18:42:56 19:40:00 1:57 90.92% Khovd 18:50:50 19:49:19 20:18:31 (sunset) 1:28 88.20%References:
Gallery
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.
+March 29, 2006 Solar Eclipse Times Event Time (UTC) First Penumbral External Contact 2006 March 29 at 07:37:53.6 UTC First Umbral External Contact 2006 March 29 at 08:35:29.4 UTC First Central Line 2006 March 29 at 08:36:31.5 UTC First Umbral Internal Contact 2006 March 29 at 08:37:33.6 UTC First Penumbral Internal Contact 2006 March 29 at 09:45:42.2 UTC Greatest Eclipse 2006 March 29 at 10:12:22.7 UTC Greatest Duration 2006 March 29 at 10:12:45.5 UTC Ecliptic Conjunction 2006 March 29 at 10:16:20.0 UTC Equatorial Conjunction 2006 March 29 at 10:34:22.4 UTC Last Penumbral Internal Contact 2006 March 29 at 10:38:33.1 UTC Last Umbral Internal Contact 2006 March 29 at 11:46:59.6 UTC Last Central Line 2006 March 29 at 11:48:00.6 UTC Last Umbral External Contact 2006 March 29 at 11:49:01.5 UTC Last Penumbral External Contact 2006 March 29 at 12:46:45.7 UTC
+March 29, 2006 Solar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Eclipse Magnitude 1.05152 Eclipse Obscuration 1.10569 Gamma 0.38433 Sun Right Ascension 00h31m31.7s Sun Declination +03°24'10.3" Sun Semi-Diameter 16'01.1" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8" Moon Right Ascension 00h30m46.6s Moon Declination +03°44'36.2" Moon Semi-Diameter 16'34.9" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°00'51.4" ΔT 64.9 s
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.
+ Eclipse season of March 2006 March 14Descending node (full moon) March 29Ascending node (new moon) Penumbral lunar eclipseLunar Saros 113 Total solar eclipseSolar Saros 139
Related eclipses Eclipses in 2006 A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 14. A total solar eclipse on March 29. A partial lunar eclipse on September 7. An annular solar eclipse on September 22.
Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 10, 2002 Followed by: Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999