An annular solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Tuesday, March 31, 2071,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9919. 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 7.2 days after apogee (on March 24, 2071, at 10:05 UTC) and 6.2 days before perigee (on April 6, 2071, at 19:05 UTC).[2]
The path of annularity will be visible from parts of Chile, Argentina, extreme southern Paraguay, Brazil, extreme southern Gabon, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A partial solar eclipse will also be visible for parts of South America, Antarctica, and Africa.
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 | 2071 March 31 at 12:14:19.7 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 2071 March 31 at 13:17:47.4 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 2071 March 31 at 13:18:35.7 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 2071 March 31 at 13:18:35.7 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 2071 March 31 at 13:19:24.0 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 2071 March 31 at 14:34:35.2 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 2071 March 31 at 14:48:09.5 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 2071 March 31 at 15:01:06.4 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 2071 March 31 at 15:05:13.1 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 2071 March 31 at 15:28:00.2 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 2071 March 31 at 16:43:00.5 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 2071 March 31 at 16:43:45.8 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 2071 March 31 at 16:44:31.0 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 2071 March 31 at 17:47:52.6 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.99186 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.98379 | |
| Gamma | −0.37393 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 00h40m27.6s | |
| Sun Declination | +04°21'06.6" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 16'00.8" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.8" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 00h40m53.3s | |
| Moon Declination | +04°00'40.0" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 15'38.9" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°57'25.9" | |
| ΔT | 98.5 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.