An annular solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Sunday, January 16 and Monday, January 17, 2056,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9759. 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. The Moon's apparent diameter will be near the average diameter because it will occur 6.25 days after perigee (on January 10, 2056, at 16:50 UTC) and 7.2 days before apogee (on January 24, 2056, at 2:20 UTC).[2]
The path of annularity will be visible from parts of the Marshall Islands, northern Mexico, and Texas. A partial solar eclipse will also be visible for parts of Oceania, Hawaii, western and central North America, and Central America.
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.[3]
| First Penumbral External Contact | 2056 January 16 at 19:30:21.0 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 2056 January 16 at 20:34:43.8 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 2056 January 16 at 20:36:03.0 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 2056 January 16 at 20:37:22.3 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 2056 January 16 at 22:02:03.4 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 2056 January 16 at 22:12:06.7 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 2056 January 16 at 22:16:45.2 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 2056 January 16 at 22:20:15.4 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 2056 January 16 at 22:21:03.0 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 2056 January 16 at 22:31:18.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 2056 January 16 at 23:56:02.7 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 2056 January 16 at 23:57:25.0 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 2056 January 16 at 23:58:47.2 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 2056 January 17 at 01:03:13.9 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.97595 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.95248 | |
| Gamma | 0.41993 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 19h54m06.4s | |
| Sun Declination | -20°50'41.3" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'15.5" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.9" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 19h53m57.0s | |
| Moon Declination | -20°26'45.0" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'38.4" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°57'23.8" | |
| ΔT | 87.8 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.
