ANTARCTICA-AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND 6 February 2008 Partial annular solar eclipse visible in southern regions of Earth

The first eclipse of 2008 will be an annular solar eclipse. It will be a partial eclipse and visible only in Antarctica, New Zealand and parts of Australia, yet could still attract significant excitement. Annular eclipses have long been unexplained, and a new study is believed to solve the mystery.

They are one of four classes of solar eclipse, which occur when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun and totally or partially obscures the view of the Sun from Earth. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the Moon appears smaller than the Sun. The Sun then appears as a bright annulus outlining the Moon.

The study by Dr Matija Cuk of the University of British Columbia in Canada, reported in Science magazine that the tug of gravity on the Moon from Jupiter and Venus pulls it out of its circular orbit. The most visible result is that during some solar eclipses the Moon is on the more distant part of its non-circular orbit and it doesn't quite cover the entire Sun, resulting in the annular eclipse. Oct/07

RELATED READING:

Excitation of Lunar Eccentricity by Planet resonances (12 Oct 2007)
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/318/5848/244?maxtoshow=&HITS=20&hits=20&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Cuk+M'"orexacttitle=or'"orexacttitleabs=or'"orexactfulltext=or&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&fdate=7/1/1880&tdate=10/31/2007&resourcetype=HWCIT

Looney Moon orbit mystery solved (Discovery News/ABC 17 Oct 2007
http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2057646.htm?tech