- Start
- Mar 30, 203375% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Total Solar Eclipse Crosses the United States
- A total solar eclipse on 2033 Mar 30, catalogued by NASA/GSFC as sequence 09581, relative number 28, of Saros series 120[1][2][3]
- Greatest Eclipse falls at 18:01:16.4 UT at 71°18.9'N 155°48.5'W, with the Sun only 11.2° up, a path 781.0 km wide and a central duration of 02m37.0s[1]
- Greatest Duration is 16 seconds earlier at 18:01:00 UT at 71°10'N 155°54'W, where the path is slightly wider at 782.3 km for the same 02m37.0s; the Google-map page gives the same figure[1][2]
- The umbral path is short-lived, tabulated only from 17:42 to 18:20 UT: the central line opens at 60°56.7'N 178°26.4'E (744 km wide, 02m13.6s) and closes at 82°28.4'N 142°55.2'E (758 km, 02m13.4s), with a Moon/Sun diameter ratio of 1.043 at both limits[1]
- The very wide path and low Sun are typical of a near-grazing eclipse: gamma is 0.9778 in the Saros catalog, which gives the same instant in Terrestrial Dynamical Time as 2033 Mar 30 18:02:36 TD with ΔT = 80 s, magnitude 1.0462, path width 781 km and central duration 02m37s — matching the path page’s 781.0 km[1][3]
- Totality can only be seen between the blue northern and southern path limits and is longest on the red central line; yellow lines mark maximum eclipse at 10-minute intervals[2]
- Predictions use the VSOP87/ELP2000-85 solar and lunar ephemerides with ΔT = 78.9 seconds, and exclude the lunar limb profile, whose corrections ‘may shift the limits of the eclipse path north or south by ~1-3 kilometers, and change the eclipse duration by ~1-3 seconds’[1][2]
- This is the last total eclipse of Saros 120: the series, which runs 1262.11 years over 71 eclipses from a partial on 0933 May 27 to a partial on 2195 Jul 07, turns to closing partials with 2051 Apr 11[3]
- All calculations are by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC, who ‘assumes full responsibility for their accuracy’[1][2][3]
References 382% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]75%eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2033Mar30Tpath.htmleclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Posted Sep 20, 2026· Starts Mar 30, 2033 ✓· 33% of score
NASA's[2][3] eclipse catalogue gives the instant of greatest eclipse as 18:01:16 UT on 2033-03-30 (18:02:35 TD, the two separated by delta-T), from Saros series 120. Eclipse circumstances are computed from orbital mechanics, so the date and time are exact centuries ahead.
- [2]90%Total Solar Eclipse of 2033-03-30 - Google map of the patheclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Added Sep 20, 2026· 33% of score
NASA's[1][3] interactive map of this eclipse, showing the central path, the points of greatest eclipse and greatest duration, and local circumstances anywhere on the map.
- [3]80%Saros series 120eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Added Sep 20, 2026· 33% of score
The saros series this eclipse belongs to, listing every eclipse in the same 18-year family and where each one fell.[1]
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