A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Thursday, April 20, 2023,[1] with a magnitude of 1.0132. It was a hybrid event, a narrow total eclipse, and beginning and ending as an annular eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun thereby totally or partly obscuring the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A hybrid solar eclipse is a rare type of solar eclipse that changes its appearance from annular to total and back as the Moon's shadow moves across the Earth's surface.[2] Totality occurs between the annularity paths across the surface of the Earth, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.[3] Hybrid solar eclipses are extremely rare, occurring in only 3.1% of solar eclipses in the 21st century.[4] Occurring about 4.1 days after perigee (on April 16, 2023, at 3:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[5] [6]
Totality for this eclipse was visible in the North West Cape peninsula and Barrow Island in Western Australia, eastern parts of East Timor, as well as Damar Island and parts of the province of Papua in Indonesia.[7] A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Antarctica, Australia, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. More than 20,000 people watched the eclipse from the town of Exmouth on Western Australia's North West Cape.[8] Providing infrastructure and services for the visitors (Exmouth's normal population is less than 3,000) cost the State Government of Western Australia A$20 million (US$13.5 million). The date marked a significant moment of astrotourism and tourism in Western Australia.[9]
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.[10]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 2023 April 20 at 01:35:34.3 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 2023 April 20 at 02:38:15.0 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 2023 April 20 at 02:38:18.4 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 2023 April 20 at 02:38:21.7 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 2023 April 20 at 03:54:32.2 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 2023 April 20 at 03:56:44.7 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 2023 April 20 at 04:13:41.1 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 2023 April 20 at 04:17:26.8 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 2023 April 20 at 04:17:56.0 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 2023 April 20 at 04:41:47.9 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 2023 April 20 at 05:57:41.3 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 2023 April 20 at 05:57:47.4 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 2023 April 20 at 05:57:53.5 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 2023 April 20 at 07:00:31.9 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.01320 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.02657 | |
| Gamma | −0.39515 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 01h51m01.7s | |
| Sun Declination | +11°24'54.1" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'55.4" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 01h51m43.2s | |
| Moon Declination | +11°04'16.7" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'53.6" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°58'19.9" | |
| ΔT | 71.1 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.