A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Thursday, February 26, 1998,[1] with a magnitude of 1.0441. 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. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.1 days before perigee (on February 27, 1998, at 19:50 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.[2]
Totality was visible in the Galápagos Islands, Panama, Colombia, the Paraguaná Peninsula in northwestern Venezuela, all of Aruba, most of Curaçao and the northwestern tip of Bonaire (belonging to Netherlands Antilles which dissolved later), all of Montserrat, Guadeloupe and Antigua and Barbuda. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Mexico, the southern and eastern United States, Central America, the Caribbean, northern South America, West Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Jay Pasachoff led a team from Williams College, Massachusetts to Aruba and studied the rapid oscillations of the corona and coronal temperature, and also recorded coronal and other solar images in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum. The team also photographed the corona using the same green filter onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, providing calibration for the spacecraft.[3] Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center also observed it in Aruba. Clouds gradually gathered at the beginning of the eclipse, and it rained for a while. This was the first precipitation on the island in 6 months. Later, the sky gradually cleared up and totality was successfully seen.[4] The wind speed on the island was often larger than 30 knots.[3]
A team of the Johnson Space Center observed the eclipse in Curaçao. Curaçao got the first precipitation in 4 months on the morning of the eclipse day, but it gradually cleared up afterwards. During the totality, the sky was completely clear. The corona was extending in the east-west direction, and helmet streamers could be seen at the poles of the sun.[5]
The 2001 Japanese film Orozco the Embalmer briefly featured the total eclipse as seen from Colombia.
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.[6]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 1998 February 26 at 14:51:26.2 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 1998 February 26 at 15:47:48.6 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 1998 February 26 at 15:48:32.9 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 1998 February 26 at 15:49:17.2 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 1998 February 26 at 16:48:32.4 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 1998 February 26 at 17:26:58.5 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 1998 February 26 at 17:28:01.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 1998 February 26 at 17:29:26.7 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 1998 February 26 at 17:36:39.9 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 1998 February 26 at 18:10:10.1 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 1998 February 26 at 19:09:29.1 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 1998 February 26 at 19:10:14.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 1998 February 26 at 19:11:00.5 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 1998 February 26 at 20:07:20.7 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 1.04411 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 1.09017 | |
| Gamma | 0.23909 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 22h38m18.9s | |
| Sun Declination | -08°36'05.1" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'09.1" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 22h38m02.5s | |
| Moon Declination | -08°22'08.5" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 16'35.2" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 1°00'52.6" | |
| ΔT | 63.0 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.