Solar eclipse of July 22, 2028

A solar eclipse, also called the Great Australasian Eclipse by some media outlets, will occur at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, July 22, 2028, with a magnitude of 1.056. 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 total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 1.8 days before perigee (on July 23, 2028, at 23:20 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger. The central line of the path of the eclipse will cross the Australian continent from the Kimberley region in the north-west and continue in a south-easterly direction through Western Australia, the Northern Territory, south-west Queensland and New South Wales, close to the towns of Wyndham, Kununurra, Tennant Creek, Birdsville, Bourke and Dubbo, and continuing on through the centre of Sydney, where the eclipse will have a duration of over three minutes. It will also cross Queenstown and Dunedin, New Zealand. Totality will also be viewable from two of Australia's external territories: Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. A partial eclipse will be visible for parts of Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania. This is the first time Sydney will experience a total solar eclipse since March 26, 1857 and will be the last until June 3, 2858. It will be the first total solar eclipse visible anywhere in New Zealand since 1965, and the first one experienced by Dunedin since 1163, when New Zealand was still uninhabited.

Images

Eclipse timing

Places experiencing total eclipse

Places experiencing partial eclipse

Eclipse details 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.

Characteristics

Eclipse path intersections The path of the July 22, 2028 eclipse will be crossed by the paths of 3 more total solar eclipses within the following 10 years, including the November 2030, July 2037, and December 2038 total solar eclipses. The path of the July 2028 solar eclipse will intersect that of the November 2030 eclipse at a point between Thargomindah and Bourke in Eastern Australia, that of the July 2037 eclipse near Bedourjie, in southwestern Queensland, and that of the December 2038 eclipse at a point in the Tasman Sea, in between Australia and New Zealand. This is similar to the intersection in the paths of the August 2017 and April 2024 total solar eclipses in the United States, over southern Illinois, the intersection of the August 2027 and March 2034 total solar eclipses in Egypt, and the intersection of the August 1999 and March 2006 solar eclipses over Turkey; the intersections within these pairs of total eclipses occurred about 7 years apart. This phenomenon is considered to be unusual, since the average interval for any given spot on Earth to observe a total solar eclipse is about once every 375 years. The intersection patterns are caused by the dynamics of the Saros cycle.

Impact By August 2026 one hotel in Dunedin was already booked out for its 2028 "solar eclipse package", and 35,000 visitors were predicted to visit the city for the event. Dunedin was planning a winter night-sky festival, beginning with Matariki and ending with the eclipse ten days later.

Eclipse season

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.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2028 A partial lunar eclipse on January 12. An annular solar eclipse on January 26. A partial lunar eclipse on July 6. A total solar eclipse on July 22. A total lunar eclipse on December 31.

Metonic Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 2, 2024 Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 9, 2032

Tzolkinex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of June 10, 2021 Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 2, 2035

Half-Saros Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of July 16, 2019 Followed by: Lunar eclipse of July 27, 2037

Tritos Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 Followed by: Solar eclipse of June 21, 2039

Solar Saros 146 Preceded by: Solar eclipse of July 11, 2010 Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 2, 2046

Inex Preceded by: Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 1, 2057

Triad Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 21, 1941 Followed by: Solar eclipse of May 24, 2115

Solar eclipses of 2026–2029 This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse 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. The partial solar eclipses on June 12, 2029 and December 5, 2029 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.

Saros 146 This eclipse is a part of Saros series 146, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 76 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on September 19, 1541. It contains total eclipses from May 29, 1938 through October 7, 2154; hybrid eclipses from October 17, 2172 through November 20, 2226; and annular eclipses from November 30, 2244 through August 10, 2659. The series ends at member 76 as a partial eclipse on December 29, 2893. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth. The longest duration of totality was produced by member 26 at 5 minutes, 21 seconds on June 30, 1992, and the longest duration of annularity will be produced by member 63 at 3 minutes, 30 seconds on August 10, 2659. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of 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). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.

Tritos series This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

Inex series This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.

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