14 November 2031: a rare hybrid eclipse over the Pacific and Panama

The eclipse begins at sunrise over the western Pacific, near Wake Island, where it is already the morning of 15 November. From there the Moon’s shadow sweeps south-east across the ocean, crosses the equator and reaches Central America just as the Sun sets there on Friday 14 November.

What makes a hybrid eclipse different

Most solar eclipses are either total, when the Moon covers the whole Sun, or annular, when it is slightly too small and leaves a bright ring of sunlight, often called a ring of fire. A hybrid eclipse is both, depending on where you stand.

In this eclipse the Moon looks almost exactly as large in the sky as the Sun. The Earth is round, so the middle of the path, where the Sun stands high around midday, is about 6,400 km closer to the Moon than its ends, where the Sun is rising or setting. Seen from the middle, the Moon is just big enough to cover the Sun. Seen from the ends, it falls a fraction short, and the ring appears.

Hybrid eclipses are rare. NASA’s catalogue of 11,898 solar eclipses between 2000 BC and AD 3000 counts about 5% as hybrid, against about 27% total and 33% annular.

Totality only at sea

The total part of the path is no more than 38 km wide and never leaves the Pacific. Totality lasts longest, 68 seconds, about 950 km north of the Marquesas Islands, just south of the equator. Seeing it means being on a ship or an eclipse charter flight in exactly the right spot.

Kiritimati, Nuku Hiva and the Galápagos lie a few hundred to about 1,000 km from the path. Each sees two-thirds to four-fifths of the Sun covered. The sky does not get dark, and the corona remains hidden.

A ring at sunset in Panama

The eastern end of the path reaches Central America in the last minutes of daylight. A thin strip of annular eclipse crosses Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, around Mariato and Macaracas, and then the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama. The ring lasts about 15 seconds, according to NASA’s eclipse tables, and appears at 5:48 pm, when the Sun is only 1 to 3 degrees above the western horizon.

Catching it needs a flat, clear view to the west-southwest, ideally over the sea. November is one of the wettest months on Panama’s Pacific coast, so afternoon storms are common. Look at the ring only through eclipse glasses, even with the Sun this low. Panama City, just outside the strip, sees a deep partial eclipse a few minutes before sunset, and Costa Rica about 20 minutes before.

Coverage and times by place

Where to watch the 2031 hybrid eclipse

• At sea in the central Pacific The only place to see totality, on a specialised cruise or charter.
• Panama’s Azuero Peninsula A ring lasting about 15 seconds at sunset. Choose a beach or hill facing west-southwest, such as the coast near Mariato.
• Costa Rica and western Panama About 90% of the Sun covered, which then sets as a thin crescent over the Pacific.
• Kiritimati and the Marquesas Two-thirds to four-fifths covered with the Sun high overhead. In the Galápagos the Sun is lower, about 14 degrees up in the afternoon.
• Hawaii Honolulu sees its peak at 9:55 am, with the Sun well up in the eastern sky.

The 2031 eclipse in its Saros cycle

Eclipses repeat in cycles of 18 years and 11 days, called Saros cycles, and the 2031 eclipse belongs to Saros 143. Its last total eclipse came in 1995. From 2013 to 2067 its members are hybrids, including the eclipse of 3 November 2013, which was total for a short time over Gabon and Uganda, and the next one, on 25 November 2049. After 2085 they turn annular.

The same cycle produced its longest totality, 3 minutes and 50 seconds, on 19 August 1887, across Europe and Asia from Germany to Japan. American and Japanese astronomers set up instruments at Nikko to watch it (see the eclipse of 2 September 2035).