Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999

The eclipse as seen from France

On August 11 1999, a total eclipse of the Sun, with an eclipse magnitude of 1.029, occurred.

The path of the Moon's shadow began in the Atlantic Ocean, before noon traversing Cornwall, Devon, northern France, southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, and northern Serbia. Its maximum was at 11:03 UTC at 45°06′N 24°18′E / 45.1°N 24.3°E / 45.1; 24.3 in Romania (next to a town called Râmnicu Vâlcea), and it continued across Bulgaria, the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, southern Pakistan and India.

It was the first total eclipse visible from Europe since July 22 1990, and the first visible in the United Kingdom since June 29 1927.

Observations

There is little doubt that this was the most-viewed total solar eclipse in human history, although some areas in the path of totality offered impaired visibility due to adverse weather conditions.

The San Francisco Exploratorium featured a live webcast from a crowded town square in Amasya, Turkey. The moon's shadow was also observed from the Russian Mir space station; during the eclipse, video from Mir was broadcast live on television. Some of the organized eclipse-watching parties along the path of totality set up video projectors on which people could watch the shadow as it raced towards them [1].

Notable times and coordinates

NASA-produced map of the eclipse with coordinates, click here for detail.

Event	Time (UTC)
Beginning of the general eclipse	08:26:17
Beginning of the total eclipse	09:29:55
Beginning of the central eclipse	09:30:53
Greatest eclipse	11:03:07
End of the central eclipse	12:35:33
End of the total eclipse	12:36:26
End of the general eclipse	13:40:08

Type of the eclipse

Nature of the eclipse	Total
Gamma	0.5063
Magnitude	1.0286
Duration at greatest eclipse point	142 s (2 min 22 s) at 11:03:07 UTC, in Romania: 45°04′48″N 24°17′18″E / 45.08000°N 24.28833°E / 45.08000; 24.28833
Maximum width of band	112.3 km