Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2005 April 08
Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2005 April 08: "Hybrid Solar Eclipse of 2005 April 08"
1A hybrid eclipse is a unique type of central eclipse where parts of the path are annular while other parts are total. This duality comes about when the vertex of the Moon's umbral shadow pierces Earth's surface at some points, but falls short of the planet along other portions of the eclipse path. The curvature of Earth's surface brings some geographic locations along the path into the umbra while other positions are more distant and enter the antumbral rather than umbral shadow. In most cases (like in 2005), the hybrid eclipse begins annular, changes to total for the central portion of the path, and then converts back to annular towards the end of the path. However, some hybrid eclipses may be annular only at the beginning (e.g. - 2013 Nov 03) or at the end (e.g. - 2386 Apr 29) of the path.