A partial

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

occurred at the Moon's

descending node An orbital node is either of the two points where an orbit intersects a plane of reference to which it is inclined. A non-inclined orbit, which is contained in the reference plane, has no nodes. Planes of reference Common planes of referenc ...

of orbit on Thursday, August 31, 1989, with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 0.6344. A

occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

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.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an

eclipse season An eclipse season is a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Eclipse seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of the Orbit of the Moon, Moon's orbital plane (orbital inclination, tilted five degrees to the ecliptic, Earth ...

, 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 A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days", since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is hal ...

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 1989

* A total lunar eclipse on February 20. * A partial solar eclipse on March 7. * A total lunar eclipse on August 17. * A partial solar eclipse on August 31.

Metonic

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of November 12, 1985

Tzolkinex

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of July 20, 1982 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Tuesday, July 20, 1982, with a magnitude of 0.4643. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of t ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of October 12, 1996

Half-Saros

* Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of August 26, 1980 * Followed by: Lunar eclipse of September 6, 1998

Tritos

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 2, 1978 * Followed by:

Solar eclipse of July 31, 2000 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit between Sunday, July 30 and Monday, July 31, 2000, with a magnitude of 0.6034. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partl ...

Solar Saros 154

* Preceded by:

Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971 A partial solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Friday, August 20 and Saturday, August 21, 1971, with a magnitude of 0.508. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or p ...

* Followed by: Solar eclipse of September 11, 2007

Inex

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of September 20, 1960 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of August 11, 2018

Triad

* Preceded by: Solar eclipse of October 31, 1902 * Followed by: Solar eclipse of July 1, 2076

Solar eclipses of 1986–1989

Saros 154

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series

References

External links

{{Solar eclipses 1989 8 31 1989 in science 1989 8 31 August 1989