Solar eclipse of December 14, 2001

0°36′N 130°42′W / 0.6°N 130.7°W / 0.6; -130.7Max. width of band126 km (78 mi)Times (UTC)Greatest eclipse20:53:01ReferencesSaros132 (45 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000)9512

An annular solar eclipse occurred on December 14, 2001.^[1][2][3] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. It was visible across the Pacific Ocean, southern Costa Rica, northern Nicaragua and San Andrés Island, Colombia. The central shadow passed just south of Hawaii in early morning and ended over Central America near sunset.

The moon's apparent diameter was near the average diameter because the eclipse occurred 7.9 days after perigee (December 6, 2001 at 22:49 UTC) and 6.7 days before apogee (December 21, 2001 at 13:03 UTC).

Images

Gallery

• 
  Partial from Siesta Key, Florida at sunset

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 2001

• A total lunar eclipse on January 9.
• A total solar eclipse on June 21.
• A partial lunar eclipse on July 5.
• An annular solar eclipse on December 14.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse on December 30.

Tzolkinex

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of November 3, 1994

• Followed: Solar eclipse of January 26, 2009

Half-Saros

• Preceded: Lunar eclipse of December 9, 1992

• Followed: Lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010

Tritos

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of January 15, 1991

• Followed: Solar eclipse of November 13, 2012

Solar Saros 132

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of December 4, 1983

• Followed: Solar eclipse of December 26, 2019

Inex

• Preceded: Solar eclipse of January 4, 1973

• Followed: Solar eclipse of November 25, 2030

Solar eclipses 2000–2003

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.^[4]

Partial solar eclipses on February 5, 2000 and July 31, 2000 occur in the previous lunar year set.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2000 to 2003

Ascending node				Descending node
Saros	Map	Gamma		Saros	Map	Gamma
117	2000 July 01 Partial (south)	−1.28214		122	2000 December 25 Partial (north)	1.13669
127 Totality from Lusaka, Zambia	2001 June 21 Total	−0.57013		132 Partial from Minneapolis, MN	2001 December 14 Annular	0.40885
137 Partial from Los Angeles, CA	2002 June 10 Annular	0.19933		142 Totality from Woomera	2002 December 04 Total	−0.30204
147 Culloden, Scotland	2003 May 31 Annular	0.99598		152	2003 November 23 Total	−0.96381

Saros 132

This eclipse is a part of Saros cycle 132, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on August 13, 1208. It contains annular eclipses from March 17, 1569 through March 12, 2146, hybrid on March 22, 2164 and April 3, 2182 and total eclipses from April 14, 2200 through June 19, 2308. The series ends at member 71 as a partial eclipse on September 25, 2470. The longest duration of annularity was 6 minutes, 56 seconds on May 9, 1641, and totality will be 2 minutes, 14 seconds on June 8, 2290. All eclipses in this series occurs at the Moon’s descending node.

Series members 28–50 occur between 1690 and 2100:
28	29	30
June 11, 1695	June 22, 1713	July 4, 1731
31	32	33
July 14, 1749	July 25, 1767	August 5, 1785
34	35	36
August 17, 1803	August 27, 1821	September 7, 1839
37	38	39
September 18, 1857	September 29, 1875	October 9, 1893
40	41	42
October 22, 1911	November 1, 1929	November 12, 1947
43	44	45
November 23, 1965	December 4, 1983	December 14, 2001
46	47	48
December 26, 2019	January 5, 2038	January 16, 2056
49	50
January 27, 2074	February 7, 2092

Tritos series

This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Series members between 1901 and 2100
September 21, 1903 (Saros 123)	August 21, 1914 (Saros 124)	July 20, 1925 (Saros 125)
June 19, 1936 (Saros 126)	May 20, 1947 (Saros 127)	April 19, 1958 (Saros 128)
March 18, 1969 (Saros 129)	February 16, 1980 (Saros 130)	January 15, 1991 (Saros 131)
December 14, 2001 (Saros 132)	November 13, 2012 (Saros 133)	October 14, 2023 (Saros 134)
September 12, 2034 (Saros 135)	August 12, 2045 (Saros 136)	July 12, 2056 (Saros 137)
June 11, 2067 (Saros 138)	May 11, 2078 (Saros 139)	April 10, 2089 (Saros 140)
March 10, 2100 (Saros 141)

Metonic cycle

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

21 events between July 22, 1971 and July 22, 2047
July 21–22	May 9–11	February 26–27	December 14–15	October 2–3
116	118	120	122	124
July 22, 1971	May 11, 1975	February 26, 1979	December 15, 1982	October 3, 1986
126	128	130	132	134
July 22, 1990	May 10, 1994	February 26, 1998	December 14, 2001	October 3, 2005
136	138	140	142	144
July 22, 2009	May 10, 2013	February 26, 2017	December 14, 2020	October 2, 2024
146	148	150	152	154
July 22, 2028	May 9, 2032	February 27, 2036	December 15, 2039	October 3, 2043
156
July 22, 2047

References

• NASA Press release: Annular Solar Eclipse of 2001 December 14
• Earth visibility chart and eclipse statistics Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
  • Google interactive map
  • Besselian elements

Photos:

• Photos of solar eclipse around the world
• NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Partial Eclipse, Cloudy Day, near Des Moines, Iowa (21 December 2001)
• Partial Solar Eclipse from the USA
• SpaceWeather.com Dec 14, 2001, Solar Eclipse Gallery and [1]