A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s descending node of the orbit on Thursday, February 26, 1998. A solar eclipse occurs when the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

passes between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's

apparent diameter The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular distance describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it is ...

is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Totality was visible in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

, Colombia, the

Paraguaná Peninsula The Paraguaná Peninsula () is a peninsula in Venezuela, situated in the north of Falcón State, and comprises the municipalities of Carirubana, Los Taques and Falcón. The island of Aruba lies to the north. Bonaire and Curaçao are slightly ...

in northwestern

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, all of Aruba, most of Curaçao and the northwestern tip of Bonaire (belonging to Netherlands Antilles which dissolved later), all of Montserrat, Guadeloupe and Antigua and Barbuda.

Related eclipses

Eclipses of 1998

* A total solar eclipse on February 26. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 13. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 8. * An annular solar eclipse on August 22. * A penumbral lunar eclipse on September 6.

Solar eclipses 1997–2000

Saros 130

Metonic cycle

In popular culture

The 2001 Japanese film ''

Orozco the Embalmer ''Orozco the Embalmer'' (Spanish: ''Orozco el embalsamador'') is a 2001 Spanish-language Japanese mondo film directed by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki. It follows a Colombian embalmer named Froilan Orozco Duarte, who is shown living in El Cartucho, an imp ...

'' briefly featured the total eclipse as seen from Colombia.

Notes

References

External links

Sites and Photos

Venezuela. Prof. Druckmüller's eclipse photography site

APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a website provided by NASA and Michigan Technological University (MTU). According to the website, "Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written ...

3/11/1998, A Total Eclipse of the Sun, totality from Venezuela.

3/12/1998, Moon Shadow satellite animation, 2/1998.
The 1998 Eclipse in Venezuela

Videos

Total eclipse, 1998 February 26, Venezuela

Aruba Eclipse - February 26, 1998

Maracaibo eclipse solar 1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solar Eclipse Of February 26, 1998 Total solar eclipses, 1998 02 26 1998 in science 1998 02 26 February 1998 events 1998 in Panama 1998 in Colombia 1998 in Antigua and Barbuda