by On October 2, a annular solar eclipse will be visible from the southern hemisphere. During this event, the moon does not completely cover the sun from our perspective on Earth, so it leaves a “ring of fire” around the moon.
It appears that the moon’s shadow moves at vastly different speeds depending on your location. In some places it will move faster than 10 million km/h; in others it will travel as slowly as 2,057 km/h, or about the speed of a fighter jet.
During the ring solar eclipsethe shadow of the moon is projected Earth from northwest to southeast, but because the planet is round, the shadow will travel over a curved surface. Consequently, the distance between a place where the solar eclipse occurs and the Moon will constantly change. This also applies to the orbital speed of the moon. Together, these factors mean that the speed of the shadow will vary drastically.
Here’s where the moon’s shadow will move fastest and slowest, so you can plan for the next phase Annular solar eclipse of 2024. Remember, it is NEVER safe to look directly at it during an annular solar eclipse the sun without solar eclipse glasses designed for solar viewing. Read our guide at how to look at the sun safely.
Related: Where can I see the annular solar eclipse on October 2, 2024?
Where the annular solar eclipse will move fastest
The event starts as an eclipsed sunrise, peaks around noon and ends with an eclipsed sunset. The curvature of the Earth makes a huge difference in the apparent speed of the moon’s shadow across the surface, with the extremes of the path showing by far the fastest speeds. After all, that’s where the shadow hits the Earth at its most extreme point.
As it first hits the center of the Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii, the moon’s ‘antumbral’ shadow – within which the ‘ring of fire’ will be visible – will move at an astonishing speed of 8.55 million km /you. according to Xavier Jubier interactive eclipse map. When it leaves the planet 229 minutes later, near the island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean, it will do so at a speed of 10 million km/h.
At these precise moments, the moon’s shadow will hit and leave the Earth, so the speed of the shadow will be essentially infinite. That makes these alarming figures largely meaningless. Therefore, it is more useful to take into account the speed of the shadow at the points where the ring of fire appears dead on the horizon. At those points, the moon’s shadow will travel at 5,131 mph (8,258 km/h) and 8,893 mph (14,312 km/h), respectively.
Where the annular eclipse will move the slowest
The ring of fire will last the longest when the moon’s shadow moves the slowest. In this case, the ring of fire will appear for 7 minutes and 25 seconds, visible only from a point in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Easter Island/Rapa Nui, where the moon’s shadow will travel at a paltry speed of 2,057 km per hour. H).
Why so slow? At this point it will be midday locally, with the sun as close overhead as possible (about 68 degrees above north), and the distance between the earth and the moon will be at its minimum. Therefore, the moon’s shadow will be as close to perpendicular to the surface as possible, so that it appears to be moving at its slowest. This is where the shadow takes the longest to move across the Earth’s surface, so from within the ring of fire will be visible the longest.
