An annular solar eclipse will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, May 21, 2031,[1] with a magnitude of 0.9589. 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 3.8 days before apogee (on May 25, 2031, at 3:10 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be smaller.[2]
Annularity will be visible from parts of Angola, Zambia, the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Malawi, Tanzania, southern India, northern Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, southern Thailand, Malaysia, and much of Indonesia. A partial eclipse will be visible for much of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
Animated path
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 | 2031 May 21 at 04:15:23.0 UTC | |
| First Umbral External Contact | 2031 May 21 at 05:19:52.6 UTC | |
| First Central Line | 2031 May 21 at 05:21:47.0 UTC | |
| First Umbral Internal Contact | 2031 May 21 at 05:23:41.5 UTC | |
| First Penumbral Internal Contact | 2031 May 21 at 06:30:37.3 UTC | |
| Equatorial Conjunction | 2031 May 21 at 07:13:28.3 UTC | |
| Greatest Eclipse | 2031 May 21 at 07:16:04.3 UTC | |
| Ecliptic Conjunction | 2031 May 21 at 07:18:22.9 UTC | |
| Greatest Duration | 2031 May 21 at 07:24:28.7 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral Internal Contact | 2031 May 21 at 08:01:34.7 UTC | |
| Last Umbral Internal Contact | 2031 May 21 at 09:08:27.6 UTC | |
| Last Central Line | 2031 May 21 at 09:10:24.0 UTC | |
| Last Umbral External Contact | 2031 May 21 at 09:12:20.5 UTC | |
| Last Penumbral External Contact | 2031 May 21 at 10:16:51.4 UTC |
| Eclipse Magnitude | 0.95892 | |
| Eclipse Obscuration | 0.91954 | |
| Gamma | −0.19699 | |
| Sun Right Ascension | 03h51m34.6s | |
| Sun Declination | +20°09'39.2" | |
| Sun Semi-Diameter | 15'48.2" | |
| Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 08.7" | |
| Moon Right Ascension | 03h51m39.8s | |
| Moon Declination | +19°58'57.5" | |
| Moon Semi-Diameter | 14'55.8" | |
| Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax | 0°54'47.5" | |
| ΔT | 74.4 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.
