- Start
- May 20, 205075% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Hybrid Solar Eclipse Crosses the South Pacific
- A hybrid solar eclipse on 2050 May 20, its umbral shadow path computed by Fred Espenak for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center[1][2]
- Greatest eclipse falls at 20:41:15.0 UT at 40°05.3'S, 123°42.4'W in the South Pacific, with the Sun only 29.4° up, a path 26.7 km wide and a central-line duration of 00m21.3s[1]
- Greatest duration comes two minutes earlier, at 20:39:15 UT at 40°15'S, 124°33'W, where the path is 26.6 km wide and the central phase lasts 00m21.4s[1]; the Google map page gives the same figure, "In this case, the Greatest Duration is 00m21.4s"[2]
- The saros catalogue lists the same eclipse as 2050 May 20 at 20:42:50 TD (Terrestrial Dynamical Time, against the path table's Universal Time) at 40.1°S 123.7°W, path width 27 km and central duration 00m21s[3]
- The path table runs at 120-second intervals in Universal Time from an opening "Limits" row through 19:48 to 21:34 and a closing "Limits" row[1]
- Its hybrid character shows in the Moon/Sun diameter ratio, which runs from 0.996 at the start up through 1.000 to a maximum 1.004 in mid-path and back down to 0.995 at the end - annular at the ends, total in the middle[1]
- At 19:54 UT the central line is at 51°08.7'S, 150°49.3'W with ratio 1.000, a path just 1 km wide and a central duration of 00m00s, the changeover point[1]
- The longest tabulated central duration is 00m21.4s at 20:40 UT, central line 40°11.0'S, 124°14.3'W, Sun altitude 29°, azimuth 353°, width 27 km[1]
- The eclipse is member -13 of Saros 148 (sequence number 09619), with gamma -0.8688 and eclipse magnitude 1.0038[3]
- It is the only hybrid eclipse of Saros 148 - the catalogue lists it as both the longest and the shortest hybrid of the series, at 00m21s[3]
- Saros 148 runs 1334.23 years from a partial eclipse on 1653 Sep 21 to a partial eclipse on 2987 Dec 12, occurs at the Moon's descending node and holds 75 eclipses in the sequence 20P 2A 1H 40T 12P - 32 partial, 2 annular, 1 hybrid and 40 total[3]
- Predictions use the VSOP87/ELP2000-85 solar and lunar ephemerides with ΔT = 94.5 seconds[1][2]; the catalogue row carries ΔT = 94 s[3]
- Annularity or totality is visible only inside the central path between the blue limit lines on the map and is longest on the central line; the page marks greatest eclipse with a green GE marker and greatest duration with a magenta GD marker[2]
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/SE2050May20Hpath.htmleclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Posted Sep 20, 2026· Starts May 20, 2050 ✓· 33% of score
NASA's[2][3] eclipse catalogue gives the instant of greatest eclipse as 20:41:15 UT on 2050-05-20 (20:42:50 TD, the two separated by delta-T), from Saros series 148. Eclipse circumstances are computed from orbital mechanics, so the date and time are exact centuries ahead.
- [2]90%Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2050-05-20 - 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 148eclipse.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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