Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006

Solar eclipse of 2006 March 29
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.3843
Magnitude	1.0515
Saros	139 (29 of 71)
Maximum eclipse
Duration	4m7s
Max. width of band	184km
Times (UTC)
Greatest eclipse	10:12:23

The solar eclipse that took place on March 29, 2006 was a total eclipse of the Sun that was visible from a narrow corridor which traversed half the Earth. The magnitude, that is, the ratio between the apparent sizes of the Moon and that of the Sun, was 1.052, and it was part of Saros 139.

This solar eclipse was preceded by the penumbral lunar eclipse on March 14, 2006.

Visibility

The path of totality of the Moon's shadow began at sunrise in Brazil and extended across the Atlantic to Africa, traveling across Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya, and a small corner of Egypt, from there across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece (Kastellórizo) and Turkey, then across the Black Sea via Georgia, Russia, and Kazakhstan to Western Mongolia, where it ended at sunset. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including the northern two-thirds of Africa, the whole of Europe, and Central Asia.

Observations

People gathered in large areas where solar eclipse is visible around the World to view the event. Manchester Astronomical Society, the Malaysian Space Agency, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as well as dozens of tour groups met at the Apollo temple and the theater in Side, Turkey. The San Francisco Exploratorium featured a live webcast from the site, where thousands took their seats in the ancient, Roman-style theater.^[1]

Almost all actively visited areas in the path of totality had perfect weather. Many observers reported an unusually beautiful eclipse, with many or all effects visible, and a very nice corona despite proximity to solar minimum. The partial phase of the eclipse was also visible from the International Space Station, while the astronauts on board took spectacular pictures of the shadow on the Earth's surface. At first, it looked as though an orbit correction in the middle of March would bring the ISS in the path of totality, but this correction was postponed.

Sahara, Libya, 10:11 UTC	Smolyan, Bulgaria, 10:30 UTC	Side, Turkey, 10:55 UTC	International Space Station over Turkey and Cyprus, 10:56:55 UTC
Berkhamsted, England, 11:01 UTC	Novosibirsk, Russia, 11:42 UTC	Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 12:21 UTC	Kalmykia, Russia, 12:22 UTC

Notable times and coordinates

Type of the eclipse

Solar Eclipse in Turkey

Satellite failure

The satellite responsible for SKY Network Television, a New Zealand pay TV company, failed the day after this eclipse at around 1900 local time. While SKY didn't directly attribute the failure to the eclipse, they said in a media release that it took longer to resolve the issue because of it, but this claim was refuted by astronomers. The main reason for the failure was because of an aging and increasingly faulty satellite.^[2]

Images

Animated path

Related eclipses

Solar eclipses 2004-2008

Solar eclipse series sets from 2004–2007

Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Photo		Saros	Map	Photo
119	2004 April 19 Partial (south)			124	2004 October 14 Partial (north)
129	2005 April 8 Hybrid			134	2005 October 3 Annular	Annular from Spain
139	2006 March 29 Total	Total from Russia		144	2006 September 22 Annular	Partial from São Paulo, Brazil
149	2007 March 19 Partial (north)			154	2007 September 11 Partial (south)

Saros 139

It is a part of Saros cycle 139, repeating every 18 year, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 17, 1501. It contains hybrid eclipses on August 11, 1627 through December 9, 1825 and total eclipses from December 21, 1843 through March 26, 2601. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on July 3, 2763.

The solar eclipse of June 13, 2132 will be the next longest total solar eclipse at 6 minutes, 55 seconds. The longest duration of totality will be 7 minutes, 29 seconds on Jul 16, 2186.^[3]

Series members 24-39 occur between 1901 and 2200:

24	25	26
February 3, 1916	February 14, 1934	February 25, 1952
27	28	29
March 7, 1970	March 18, 1988	March 29, 2006
30	31	32
April 8, 2024	April 20, 2042	April 30, 2060
33	34	35
May 11, 2078	May 22, 2096	June 3, 2114
36	37	38
June 13, 2132	June 25, 2150	July 5, 2168
39
July 16, 2186

References

• Fred Espenak and Jay Anderson. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March 29". NASA Technical publication (NASA/TP-2004-212762), November 2004.
  • NASA graphics
  • Google interactive map of the eclipse from NASA

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Solar eclipse of 2006 March 29

Photos and videos

• Total eclipse photographs from Turkey
• Another set of total eclipse photographs from Turkey
• Photo gallery from Turkey
• Phases of solar eclipse view from Antalya
• NASA videos and photos from Libya and Turkey
• Pictures taken from Smolyan, Bulgaria
• NASA video of eclipse
• Solar eclipse images and videos from Libya by traveling NASA employees and scientists
• Images by Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society from Libya and Turkey
• APOD 3/30/2006, When Diamonds Aren't Forever, Greece]
• Spaceweather.com eclipse gallery

Other resources

• solar-eclipse-2006.info - Information about the March 29th Solar Eclipse.
• NASA - Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March 29
• Interactive 2006 March 29 Total Solar Eclipse map with local circumstances
• eclipse.za.net - Umbral Paths of March 29 Eclipse in Africa
• University of Athens - Solar Eclipse 29/3/2006, Solar Party
• Solar Total Eclipse of 2006 March 29
• TÜBİTAK National Observatory - 29 March 2006 Total Solar Eclipse
• KryssTal - The total eclipse seen from Side in Turkey - includes panorama with Venus visible and slide show of temple during totality.

	Solar eclipses
Previous eclipse Solar eclipse of 2005 October 3 (annular)	Solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 (total)	Next eclipse Solar eclipse of 2006 September 22 (annular)
Previous total eclipse Solar eclipse of 2003 November 23		Next total eclipse Solar eclipse of 2008 August 1

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