Tahiti Eclipse

The French Polynesia will be the best place on earth to witness the total solar eclipse scheduled July 11, 2010. Numerous atolls are located in the path of the moon shadow,  and some of them will have a maximum darkness of 4mn45. Tatakoto and Hao, Tuamotu Archipelago are part of those atolls.

Weather statistics are generous in the area and the eclipse will hopefully happen without a cloud between 8am and 10am, when the sun is high enough to avoid disruptions related to the thickness of the atmosphere.

Tuamotu Islands are already sold out and crowded with astronomers chasing eclipses and other cosmic geeks, but the other Society Islands are ideal places to observe this phenomenon.

Tahiti eclipse will be near perfect with  99.1% darkness from its peninsula (Tahiti Iti). Moorea [Mo'orea] stands right next to Tahiti with 98.6% darkness, 95.2% for Huahine, 94.4% for Tahaa [Taha'a] and 93.7% for Bora Bora.

Get the Solar Eclipse’s time schedule here.

Moon Shadow path

You will be able to witness the total solar eclipse from two archipelagos :

• The Tuamotu archipelago, especially on the atolls Anaa, Motutuga, Haraiki, Reritou, Marutea, Nihirū, Hikueru Tekokota, Marokau, Ravahere, Rekareka, Tauer, Hao ‘Amanu Tatakoto and where the darkness will reach pitch black for as long as 4 minutes.

• Society Islands. Tahiti, Moorea [Mo’orea], Huahine, Tahaa [Taha’a] , Bora Bora

The map above shows where the path of the moon shadow  (from left to right) in French Polynesia.

All points located inside the path will be totally darkened somewhere between 8 hours and 10 hours for 4 to 5 minutes. The eclipse will be pitch black  in these points, that is to say in some of the Tuamotu islands of the East, including: Hikueru, Tatakoto, Hao, Anaa, Tauer (almost uninhabited)

Source : Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides – Observatoire de Paris