An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10, 2013,[1] [2] [3] with a magnitude of 0.9544. 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. Occurring about 3.6 days before apogee (on May 13, 2013, at 14:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.[4]
Annularity was visible from parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia, the Louisiade Archipelago (belonging to Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Hawaii.
Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.[5]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 2013 May 09 at 21:26:16.9 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 2013 May 09 at 22:31:41.4 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 2013 May 09 at 22:33:47.5 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 2013 May 09 at 22:35:53.8 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 2013 May 09 at 23:46:27.1 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 2013 May 10 at 00:20:48.1 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 2013 May 10 at 00:26:20.3 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 2013 May 10 at 00:29:30.5 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 2013 May 10 at 00:36:27.6 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 2013 May 10 at 01:06:21.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 2013 May 10 at 02:16:49.4 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 2013 May 10 at 02:18:57.6 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 2013 May 10 at 02:21:05.6 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 2013 May 10 at 03:26:30.5 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.95443 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.91093 | |
| Gamma | −0.26937 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 03h08m17.4s | |
| Sun Declination | +17°36'34.3" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'50.4" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 03h08m28.1s | |
| Moon Declination | +17°22'06.3" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'53.8" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°54'40.4" | |
| ΔT | 67.0 s |
See also: Eclipse cycle. This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.