Solar Eclipse paths: 1995-2000

The NASA eclipse bulletins are are provided as a public service to the international astronomical community and contain detailed predictions, maps and meteorological data for future central solar eclipses of interest. Presently, the bulletins are available 12 to 18 months before each eclipse. We plan to increase the lead time to 24 months or more for future eclipses. However, a number of requests have been made for eclipse path data with an even greater lead time. To accomodate this demand, I am supplying ASCII text file for all central solar eclipses from 1995 through 2000.

The eclipse path predictions were generated using the JPL DE/LE 200 ephemeris using the center of mass for the Moon. 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 generated at 2 minute intervals of time compared to the 6 minute interval used in Fifty Year Canon of Solar Eclipses: 1986-2035. 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.

The paths for the following 7 eclipses are now available:

Naturally, any comments, suggestions, etc. are always welcome.

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Fred Espenak
u32fe@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov

voice: +1 301 286-5333

fax: +1 301 286-1683

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Plaetary Systems Branch / Code 693.1
Greenbelt, MD 20771