An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Thursday, September 1, 2016, with a magnitude of 0.9736. 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. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 5.4 days before apogee (on September 6, 2016, at 19:45 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller.
Annularity was visible from parts of Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Réunion. A partial eclipse was visible for most of Africa and parts of Antarctica.
<br />Animated Path
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.
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. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.