Nature Partial Magnitude 0.8576 Greatest eclipse 8:51:42 Date 4 January 2011 | Gamma 1.0627 (P1) Partial begin 6:40:11 (P4) Partial end 11:00:52 | |
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Other Instances Solar eclipse of April 8 - 2, Solar eclipse of July 2 - 20, Solar eclipse of August 2, Solar eclipse of March 9, Solar eclipse of March 20 | ||
The solar eclipse of January 4, 2011 was a partial eclipse of the Sun that was visible after sunrise over most of Europe, northwestern and South Asia. It ended at sunset over eastern Asia. It was visible as a minor partial eclipse over northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
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Greatest eclipse occurred at 08:51 UTC in northern Sweden where the eclipse in the horizon had a magnitude of 0.858. At that time, the axis of the Moon's shadow passed a mere 510 km above Earth's surface.
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. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth. This was the first of four partial solar eclipses in 2011, with the others occurring on June 1, 2011, July 1, 2011, and November 25, 2011.
It also proceeds the two total lunar eclipses occurring on June 15, 2011 and December 10, 2011.
Related eclipses
Solar eclipses 2008–2011
Each member in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.
Metonic series
The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days).