Total solar eclipse of 15 December 2039
The Moon covers the Sun completely along a band 389 km wide, reaching 1 minute 54 seconds of totality where the eclipse is greatest. Of the 3,116 cities searched, 1 see the Sun at least partly covered and 0 sit inside the path itself.
- Greatest duration
- 1 min 54 s
- Path width
- 389 km
- Cities in path
- 0
- Cities seeing it
- 1
Where the shadow falls
The bright band is where the eclipse is total. The shading around it is how much of the Sun's area is covered at each place's own maximum, brightening towards the path.
Watch the shadow move
The Earth as the Sun sees it, so the edge of the globe is sunrise and sunset. Drag the slider, or press play. The small dark spot is the umbra, the only place the eclipse is total, and it is drawn to scale, which is the point: it is a few hundred kilometres across on a planet twelve thousand wide.
What you would see
Partial eclipse. 7.5% of the Sun's area covered, with the Sun 60° above the horizon.
Local times, city by city
Every time is that city's own local clock at the moment given. Ordered by how much of the Sun is covered.
Showing the 1 most covered of 1 cities. Search, or sort a column, to reach them all.
| Partial | 12:41 | 13:22 | 14:03 | 7.5% | — |
Reading these numbers
Covered is obscuration: the fraction of the Sun's area the Moon hides. It is not the same as magnitude, the fraction of the Sun's diametercovered, which is the larger number and the one usually quoted. A magnitude of 0.5 leaves 61% of the Sun's light, not 50%.
The difference matters more than it sounds. Even at 99% obscuration the remaining sliver is thousands of times brighter than the full Moon, the sky stays blue, and none of what makes a total eclipse worth travelling for happens. Only inside the path of totality does the corona appear.
Positions come from a truncated VSOP87/ELP ephemeris accurate to about an arcminute, and the path is traced by intersecting the Moon's shadow cone with the Earth's ellipsoid. The published time of greatest eclipse for 15 December 2039 is reproduced to within a few seconds, and contact times for individual cities agree with published values to the minute. Durations are good to a few seconds; a prediction this far ahead cannot do better, because the Earth's rotation is not known exactly that far in advance.
Looking at the Sun without certified eclipse filters will damage your eyes. The only moment it is safe to look unaided is during totality itself: the interval marked in the timeline above, and only if you are inside the path of totality. Everywhere else, and at every other moment, you need proper filters.