Future Eclipse Paths on Internet
Presently, the NASA eclipse bulletins are published 24 to 36 months before each eclipse.
However, there have been a growing number of requests for eclipse path data with an even greater lead time.
To accommodate the demand, predictions have been generated for all central solar eclipses from 1995
through 2005 using the JPL DE/LE 200 ephemerides. All predictions use the Moon's center of mass; no
corrections have been made to adjust for center of figure. The value used for the Moon's mean radius
is k=0.272281. The umbral path characteristics have been predicted at 2 minute intervals of time compared to the 6
minute interval used in Fifty Year Canon of Solar Eclipses:
1986-2035 [Espenak, 1987]. This should provide
enough detail for making preliminary plots of the path on larger scale maps. Note that positive latitudes are north
and positive longitudes are west. A list of currently available eclipse paths
includes:
1998 February 26 | Total Solar Eclipse
|
1998 August 22 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
1999 February 16 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
1999 August 11 | Total Solar Eclipse
|
2001 June 21 | Total Solar Eclipse
|
2001 December 14 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
2002 June 10 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
2002 December 04 | Total Solar Eclipse
|
2003 May 31 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
2003 November 23 | Total Solar Eclipse
|
2005 April 08 | Annular/Total Solar Eclipse
|
2005 October 03 | Annular Solar Eclipse
|
URL:
http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/predictions/year-month-day.html
The tables can be accessed through the SDAC Eclipse Information home page, or directly from
the above URL For example, the eclipse path of 1999 August 11 would use the above address with the
string year-month-day replaced by "1999-august-11". Send comments, corrections, suggestions or requests
for more detailed 'ftp' instructions, to
Fred Espenak. For
Internet-related problems, please contact
Joe Gurman.
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