Annular eclipse — Arabia, India & Singapore (2019)
A ring of fire from Saudi Arabia across southern India and Sumatra to Singapore, where it hung for two minutes around midday.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
The moment of Annular eclipse — Arabia, India & Singapore (2019): https://nowsky.org/e/annular-eclipse-2019 — opens at the right place and time, replayable, no login.
Available views: Orbit ✓ · Sky ✓
The story
On 26 December 2019, the day after Christmas, a ring of fire crossed Asia. The path began near Hofuf in eastern Saudi Arabia, ran over Qatar, the UAE and Oman into the Arabian Sea, crossed Kerala and Tamil Nadu, northern Sri Lanka and Sumatra, reached Singapore, and continued over Borneo and the southern Philippines to end near Guam.
Singapore saw the ring close for about two minutes at 13:22, with the Sun almost overhead. Being equatorial the Sun was high, but December is the wet season and cloud was the great unknown. At many sites the ring appeared through gaps; temporary viewing stations downtown and filters handed out by schools and the science centre gave many residents their first eclipse.
The longest ring, 3 minutes 40 seconds, formed near Sumatra. Coimbatore and Ooty in southern India had it in the morning; northern Oman just after sunrise. Because one track linked the Gulf, South Asia and South-East Asia, more than two billion people could see the Sun partly covered in some form that day.
Unlike totality, an annular eclipse never allows filters off, so safety messaging was prominent. The sky replay shows the ring on Singapore's high noon Sun; the orbit view shows the Sun–Moon–Earth line-up from space.
Why it matters
The path crossed some of the most densely populated ground on Earth. Cities in southern India and South-East Asia saw the same ring on the same day, and Indian science institutions ran public campaigns against eclipse superstitions — where customs of fasting or staying indoors persist, the viewing event itself was science education.
Singapore became a rare case of an entire city-state turning into an observing site at once. The Science Centre and university observatories shared guidance and live coverage, and the knowledge that the next Singapore annular is not until 2063 boosted turnout.
On the science side, the clear desert skies over the Arabian peninsula allowed precise imaging of Baily's beads and the ring's thickness; Omani data were compared with the latest lunar limb terrain maps from the Kaguya and LRO missions.
How to watch
Annular track: eastern Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Oman (just after sunrise) → Kerala and Tamil Nadu (around 9 a.m.) → northern Sri Lanka → Sumatra (late morning) → Singapore (13:22) → Borneo and the southern Philippines → near Guam. Partial phases were visible across the Middle East, East Africa, most of Asia and northern Australia.
Certified filters are required from first to last contact. An equatorial noon Sun is especially intense, and even a brief unfiltered glance is dangerous. In cloud-prone regions the effective plan was to watch the forecast and stay mobile within an hour of the ring.
The sky replay follows the Sun over Singapore and slows down for the ring; change the location to Coimbatore or Muscat and the timings and altitude are recomputed.
See this for yourself — open that sky at that moment · replay the moment in the orbit view
Background
The eclipse is the 46th of Saros 132. Its predecessor on 14 December 2001 was an annular over Central America; its successor on 5 January 2038 crosses the Atlantic and West Africa.
Six months later, on 21 June 2020, a razor-thin annular (99.4% coverage) crossed Asia again, and on 2 July 2019 a total eclipse had crossed Chile and Argentina — 2019–2020 alternated eclipses between Asia and South America.
Singapore's previous annular was in 1971 and the next is in 2063. Southern India, by contrast, gets rings again in June 2020 and May 2031 — one of the more frequently favoured regions.
The December 2019 annular eclipse belongs to Saros 132; the previous member was the annular of 14 December 2001 over Central America and the Caribbean, and the next is 5 January 2038. The path began in eastern Saudi Arabia, passed Qatar and Oman, crossed Kerala and Tamil Nadu in southern India, and continued through Sumatra, Singapore and Borneo into the Pacific. In Singapore the ring lasted two minutes around noon, with the Sun high enough to be seen from anywhere in the city. From Korea it appeared as an afternoon partial eclipse covering about twenty percent of the Sun.
FAQ
When and how long was the ring over Singapore?
Around 13:22, for about two minutes, with the Sun close to the zenith.
Where was the ring longest?
Near Sumatra, at 3 minutes 40 seconds.
Was it visible from Korea?
Yes — a shallow partial of about 14% around 2 p.m. in Seoul.
Is an annular eclipse safer than a total one?
The opposite. The surviving ring is full photospheric light, so filters can never come off.
Related
- The 2020 solstice annular
- The 2031 annular over Kochi
- The 2010 annular over the Maldives
- The Sun — object index
- The Moon — object index
Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.