NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist Fred Espenak and Williams College professor Jay Pasachoff boarded the cruise ship Galapagos Legend and observed the eclipse from the sea west of the Galápagos Islands. The ship first docked at several islands in the Galapagos Islands from April 1 to 3, and then started sailing westward toward the path of totality on April 4. It was cloudy at first on April 8. The ship encountered relatively large wind and waves while sailing south to look for a location with clear sky. The clouds began to disperse from 2 pm, and the sun could be seen through the thin clouds around 2:40. It cleared up later and during the totality, the weather was excellent and the observation was very successful. After another several days of sailing, the ship arrived at the Galápagos Islands again on April 12 and docked at several islands in the following days.11
In addition, cruise ships including the MV Discovery and MS Paul Gauguin carried passengers around the Pitcairn Islands and French Polynesia.12 A team of NASA's did ground-based observations Penonomé, Coclé, Panama.1314
Animated path
See also: Eclipse cycle
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, 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.
This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.15
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 129, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 80 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on October 3, 1103. It contains annular eclipses from May 6, 1464 through March 18, 1969; hybrid eclipses from March 29, 1987 through April 20, 2023; and total eclipses from April 30, 2041 through July 26, 2185. The series ends at member 80 as a partial eclipse on February 21, 2528. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
The longest duration of annularity was produced by member 34 at 5 minutes, 10 seconds on October 4, 1698, and the longest duration of totality will be produced by member 58 at 3 minutes, 43 seconds on June 25, 2131. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.16
The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's ascending node.
This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
Photos:
10°34′01″S 118°59′13″W / 10.567°S 118.987°W / -10.567; -118.987
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Xavier M. Jubier. "Eclipse totale de Soleil du 8 avril 2005 Polynésie, Océan Pacifique (Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2005 April 8 Polynesia, Pacific Ocean)". Archived from the original on 6 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151206234417/http://xjubier.free.fr/site_pages/solar_eclipses/HSE_20050408_pg01.html ↩
Howard Anton Duncan. "Hybrid Solar Eclipse South Pacific Ocean – April 8, 2005". EclipseHD.info. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160220132941/http://eclipsehd.info/Hybrid.html ↩
Paul D. Maley. "The Hybrid 2005 Solar Eclipse on April 8". Eclipse Tours. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160121220459/http://www.eclipsetours.com/2010-2002-trips/2005-annular-solar-eclipse-in-panama/ ↩
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"NASA - Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Saros 129". eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros129.html ↩