An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of the orbit on January 15, 2010, with a magnitude of 0.91903. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. It was the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium, and the longest until December 23, 3043, with the length of maximum eclipse of 11 minutes, 7.8 seconds, and the longest duration of 11 minutes, 10.7 seconds. This is about 4 minutes longer than total solar eclipses could ever get. (The solar eclipse of January 4, 1992, was longer, at 11 minutes, 40.9 seconds, occurring in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.) Lasting 11 minutes and 7.8 seconds, and eclipse magnitude of only 0.91903, this was the longest and smallest annular solar eclipse of the 21st century. It was an annular solar eclipse on January 15, 2010. The eclipse was visible as only a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It was seen as an annular eclipse within a narrow stretch of width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), Sri Lanka and parts of Bangladesh, Burma and China. Summary of the Annular Solar Eclipse of January 15, 2010 Eclipse Magnitude: 0.91903 Eclipse Obscuration: 0.84462 Gamma: 0.40016 Saros Series: 141st (23 of 70) Sun Right Ascension: 19.8 Moon Right Ascension: 19.79 Sun Declination: -21.1 Moon Declination: -20.8 Sun Diameter: 1951.0 arcseconds Moon Diameter: 1768.6 arcseconds Radius of the Penumbral Shadow: 7,322.7 km (4,550.1 mi) Radius of the Antumbral Shadow: 361.7 km (224.8 mi) Path Width: 333.1 km (207 mi) Greatest Eclipse: 2010 January 15 at 07:06:33.2 UTC Apogee at 2010 January 17 at 01:41 UTC (406,433 km (252,546 mi)) Visibility of the eclipse The eclipse started in the Central African Republic near the border with Chad, traversed DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, passed through the northern tip of Tanzania, southwestern Somalia and three islands of Seychelles (Bird, Denis and Aride), before it entered the Indian Ocean, where it reached its greatest