partial solar eclipse

Partial solar eclipse of 27 February 2036

At greatest eclipse the Moon's disc spans 0.4985° against the Sun's 0.5387° — a ratio of 0.9253. Because the Moon appears smaller, it cannot cover the Sun, and a ring of sunlight is left around it. That is what makes this eclipse annular rather than total.

Where you can see it

The shadow axis misses Earth entirely, so nobody sees a total or annular eclipse. Everywhere in the shaded zone gets a partial one — a bite out of the Sun, best noticed through a filter rather than by looking up.

How much is covered, and where

Sorted by how much of the Sun disappears. Below about 40% nothing looks wrong to the naked eye — the Sun is so bright that losing a third of it changes very little. Never look without a proper solar filter regardless.

Not visible at all from Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Liège, Leuven, Charleroi, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Luxembourg, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin, Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne, Zurich, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Reykjavík, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Milan, Athens, Istanbul, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Cairo, Luxor, Cádiz, Málaga, Tangier, Benghazi, Jeddah, Dubai, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Brisbane, Perth.

There are no greatest-eclipse coordinates for this one: the axis never reaches the ground, which is what makes it partial everywhere. The central line is computed from the Sun–Moon axis intersected with the geoid, and agrees with the reference coordinates to within a tenth of a kilometre.

Why eclipses come in seasons

The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5° to the ecliptic, so at most new and full moons it passes above or below the alignment. An eclipse needs the syzygy to coincide with the Moon being near one of the two nodes where the orbits cross. At this eclipse the Moon's ecliptic latitude was -1.085° — close enough to zero for the shadow to connect.

Times computed from VSOP87 and an ELP-derived lunar theory, validated against NOVAS and JPL Horizons to within one arcminute. See the alignment for yourself in the live simulation.