Partial Solar Eclipse on July 22!
Jul 21 2009 Tue
2:11 am PHT
The solar eclipse that will occur this Wednesday, July 22, is quite remarkable in some respects. First of all, this eclipse will be the longest total solar eclipse in this century—a longer one won’t occur until 2132. The longest duration of totality will be 6′39″ and the reason why this eclipse is long is because the Earth is near aphelion and the Moon is near perigee. This means that the Sun will appear at its smallest and the Moon at its largest. (It’s very easy to imagine that a large circle moving in front of a smaller circle will cover the smaller circle longer than if the two circles were nearer to each other in size.)