Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009
Totality from Kurigram District, Bangladesh
Map
Type of eclipse
Nature	Total
Gamma	0.0698
Magnitude	1.0799
Maximum eclipse
Duration	399 sec (6 m 39 s)
Coordinates	24°12′N 144°06′E / 24.2°N 144.1°E / 24.2; 144.1
Max. width of band	258 km (160 mi)
Times (UTC)
(P1) Partial begin	23:58:18
(U1) Total begin	0:51:16
Greatest eclipse	2:36:25
(U4) Total end	4:19:26
(P4) Partial end	5:12:25
References
Saros	136 (37 of 71)
Catalog # (SE5000)	9528

A total solar eclipse occurred on July 22, 2009. It was the longest total solar eclipse during the 21st century, not to be surpassed until 13 June 2132. It lasted a maximum of 6 minutes and 39 seconds off the coast of Southeast Asia, causing tourist interest in eastern China, Japan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

A partial eclipse was seen within the broad path of the Moon's penumbra, including most of Southeast Asia (all of India and China) and north-eastern Oceania.

The total eclipse was visible from a narrow corridor through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including northern part of the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands, and Kiribati.

Totality was visible in many large cities, including Dhaka, Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Gaya, Dinajpur, Siliguri, Guwahati, Tawang in India and Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, Shanghai, Chapai Nawabganj as well as over the Three Gorges Dam in China. However, in Shanghai, the largest city in the eclipse's path, the view was obscured by heavy clouds. According to NASA, the Japanese island Kitaio Jima was predicted to have the best viewing conditions featuring both longer viewing time (being the closest point of land to the point of greatest eclipse) and lower cloud cover statistics than all of continental Asia.