The first total eclipse to cross land since July 1991 commences approximatelyten hours before the Moon reaches perigee. The path of Moon's umbral shadow begins in the Pacific Ocean about 2000 kilometers west of Peru. As the shadow first contacts Earth along the sunrise terminator (12:02 UT), the path is 135 kilometers wide and the total eclipse lasts 1 minute 52 seconds. Traveling southeast, the umbra quickly makes landfall along the southern coast of Peru at 12:12 UT (Figures 3 and 4). The mysterious sky drawings of Nazca lie just outside the path as the center line parallels the Peruvian coast for the next seven minutes. The duration now lasts 2 and 3/4 minutes and the early morning Sun has an altitude of 27 deg above the eastern horizon. At an elevation of approximately 2800 meters above sea-level, the city of Arequipa lies near the northern limit and will witness a 58 second total eclipse at 12:15 UT. Down on the coast, Mollendo stands on the center line but frequent marine clouds here may obscure the 2 minutes and 51 seconds of totality. As the path moves inland, it crosses the Peru-Chile border (~12:20 UT) and rapidly gains altitude as it sweeps into the western Andes. Located 1300 meters above the coast, the small town of Putre lies on the center line where the central duration lasts 2 minutes 59 seconds with the Sun at 32 deg.
Traveling with a surface velocity of 1.402 km/s, the leading edge of the umbra crosses the Chile-Bolivia border even before the trailing edge has entered Chile from Peru. The 175 kilometer wide path through western Bolivia crosses the altiplano, most of which has an elevation of 3000 to 4000 meters and enjoys the driest weather along the entire eclipse path. Unfortunately, the area has few facilities and is difficult to reach. Further east, the silver mining city of Potosi lies 45 kilometers north of the center line but will still enjoy a total phase lasting 2 minutes and 43 seconds. By 12:30 UT, the leading edge of the umbra enters western Paraguay. The duration on the center line is then 3 minutes 19 seconds, the Sun stands 41 deg above the horizon and the umbra travels with a speed of 1.088 km/s (Figure 5). Continuing southeast, the southern limit skirts Asunción at 12:43 UT where a total eclipse of 41 seconds will be visible. However, observers near the center line can expect a duration of 3 minutes and 40 seconds with a solar altitude of 49 deg After briefly crossing a narrow finger of land in northeastern Argentina, the umbra enters southern Brazil at 12:48 UT. Porto Alegre is located 120 kilometers south of the path and will experience a partial eclipse of magnitude 0.966 at 13:00 UT. On the center line, residents of Criciuma will witness a total eclipse of 4 minutes 2 seconds as the Sun stands 59 deg above the horizon.
After reaching the eastern coastline of Brazil, the shadow heads out across the south Atlantic Ocean where the instant of greatest eclipse[4] occurs at 13:39:06 UT. At that point, the length of totality reaches its maximum duration of 4 minutes 22 seconds, the Sun's altitude is 69 deg, the path width is 189 kilometers and the umbra's velocity is 0.673 km/s. The remainder of the path crosses open ocean with no further landfall with one minor exception. Gough Island experiences maximum eclipse at 14:29 UT with an umbral duration of 3 minutes 46 seconds while the Sun stands at 53 deg Afterwards, the shadow passes 350 kilometers south of South Africa at ~15:10 UT. Cape Town witnesses a tantalizing partial eclipse of magnitude 0.886 at 15:08 UT. Finally, the total eclipse ends at 15:16 UT as the umbra leaves Earth's surface along the sunset terminator in the Indian Ocean about 750 kilometers south of Madagascar. In a period of 3 hours 15 minutes, the Moon's shadow sweeps along a path 14,000 kilometers long, encompassing 0.48 % of Earth's surface area.
Next section
