By Hazarry bin Haji Ali Ahmad

The Astronomical Society of Brunei Darussalam



Bandar Seri Begawan – A perfect alignment of the Earth-Moon-Sun bodies will occur on December 26, 2019, resulting in a spectacular annular solar eclipse visible in few cities of Saudi Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Borneo and the Pacific Ocean .

Partial Eclipse from Brunei Darussalam

As seen from a location on Earth, a solar eclipse happens when the moon moves in front of the Sun thus block the Solar disk. It is a miss, as people in Brunei will only see a partial eclipse with 85.8% obscuration of the Sun by the Moon. A simulation of the partial Solar Eclipse as seen from Brunei during mid-day is shown in the video below.

Sky simulation of the partial solar eclipse from Bandar Seri Begawan on Dec 26, 2019 (Starrynight Pro 8)

Since people in Brunei will only witness the partial obscuration of the sun by the moon, features that are normally visible during annular/total eclipse such as ring of fire and darkening of the sky/surrounding will not be observable from Brunei.



Eclipse timing for Brunei Darussalam

The partial eclipse which will start at exactly 12:04 pm, will last for about three hours and 39 minutes in Brunei. The maximum phase of the eclipse will occur at 2:02:58 pm with the moon covering 85.8 per cent of the sun’s disc. The partial eclipse will end when the moon leaves the sun’s edge at 3.43 pm. Diagrams of the eclipse sequence or phases from Brunei in Local Time are as follow:

Start of eclipse at 12:04

Greatest eclipse at 14:02:58

End of eclipse at 15:43

From Bandar Seri Begawan, the percentage of the Sun’s disk covered by the Moon will proceed as follows:



Time % Sun’s disk covered

by the Moon Sun Altitude Sun Azimuth 12:12 1.9% 62 176 12:22 6.1% 62 181 12:32 12.0% 62 186 12:42 19.1% 61 191 12:52 27.0% 61 195 13:02 35.4% 60 200 13:12 43.9% 59 204 13:22 52.8% 58 207 13:32 62.6% 57 211 13:42 72.2% 55 214 13:52 80.8% 54 217 14:02 85.8% (Max) 52 220 14:12 81.6% 51 223 14:22 72.4% 49 225 14:32 62.0% 47 227 14:42 51.0% 45 229 14:52 41.0% 43 231 15:02 30.6% 41 233 15:12 20.6% 39 234 15:22 11.6% 37 236 15:32 4.5% 35 237 15:42 0.2% 33 238

Future Eclipses from Brunei Darussalam

The next eclipses visible from Brunei Darussalam:

1. Partial Solar (28.2%) on Sunday, 21 June 2020

2. Total Lunar on Wednesday, 26 May 2021 and Partial Lunar on Friday, 19 November 2021



Solar Eclipse by National Geographic

Worldwide Visibility of Annular Eclipse – In the Moon’s shadow

Distinct parts of a Moon’s shadow on the Earth – Antumbra and Penumbra. A bright ring is visible around the eclipsing bodies from area of Antumbra. An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon covers the Sun’s center, leaving the Sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” or annulus around the Moon. (Photo Source: timeanddate.com)

Annular Eclipse of Dec 26, 2019 simulation as seen from space, notice the central shadow of the moon casted on the Earth as the moon orbiting the Earth. This Moon’s shadow path is where the annular eclipse will be visible.



The annular eclipse will be visible in a very narrow 9000 km path (blue line of about 158 km width) across the globe crossing Saudi Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Borneo. From this area, the annular eclipse can be visible for up to 3 minutes and 39 second at the greatest path. These are the cities which will experience the annular eclipse:



Hofuf, Saudi Arabia

Mangaluru, Karnataka, India

Kasaragod, Kerala, India

Thalassery, Kerala, India

Kozhikode, Kerala, India

Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India

Palakkad, Kerala, India

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Erode, Tamil Nadu, India

Karur, Tamil Nadu, India

Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India

Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, India

Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India

Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Singapore, Singapore

Batam, Riau Islands, Indonesia

Tanjung Pinang, Riau Islands, Indonesia

Hagåtña, Guam

Use this Interactive World Map of the Annular Sun Eclipse of December 26, 2019 by time.unitarium.com to find out the start time of the eclipse: http://time.unitarium.com/events/eclipse/122019/map.html

While for most areas (yellow shade) outside the central path will only get to see partial eclipse of the sun, with different degree of the moon covering the Sun or magnitude depending on your location. For Brunei, the magnitude is 85.8%.

This map shows the path of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2019 Dec 26 for ASEAN region. The path limits are in yellow and the central line is blue, a merely misses for Brunei – you must be somewhere within the central path to see the annular phase of the eclipse such as from Bau, Kota Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman and Betong in Sarawak. The red lines indicate the different magnitude or fraction of the Sun’s diameter occulted by the Moon during the eclipse, for ASEAN region.

For most areas in Borneo, the annular solar eclipse path will cross close to the country’s border of Sarawak and Kalimantan which majorly may not be accessible / inhabitable, making cities around Sarawak as spots for Ring of Fire eclipse observation around the island.

Cities in Sarawak such as Kota Samarahan, Serian and Sri Aman as well as areas inside the red shade will see an annular eclipse, featuring “Ring of Fire”

Annular eclipse timings and duration for Borneo

The last Annular Eclipse of the Sun visible in Borneo was on Jan 26, 2009 – Jia Hao

Use this table to determine the beginning and ending of the partial phase and annularity eclipse from different major cities in Borneo.

Location in Borneo Start of eclipse Start of annularity Greatest End of annularity End of eclipse Duration Singkawang, Kalimantan 11:43:44 13:41:04 13:42:53 13:44:41 15:31:26 00:03:37 Sambas, Kalimantan 11:44:38 13:43:08 13:43:56 13:44:44 15:32:10 00:01:36 Bau, Sarawak 11:47:35 13:46:01 13:46:59 13:47:56 15:34:03 00:01:55 Siburan, Sarawak 11:48:30 13:46:34 13:47:52 13:49:10 15:34:35 00:02:36 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak 11:48:45 13:47:15 13:48:09 13:49:03 15:34:46 00:01:48 Serian, Sarawak 11:49:08 13:46:44 13:48:27 13:50:11 15:34:55 00:03:27 Simunjan, Sarawak 11:49:33 13:47:14 13:48:53 13:50:32 15:35:11 00:03:18 Sri Aman, Sarawak 11:52:18 13:49:46 13:51:32 13:53:18 15:36:46 00:03:32 Betong, Sarawak 11:52:30 13:50:15 13:51:47 13:53:19 15:36:56 00:03:04

Notice from the table above that the duration of annularity will be longer as the location gets very close to the central line annular eclipse path.

What to expect during Annular Eclipse of the sun

Caution: During an annular eclipse of the sun, a ‘ring of fire’ remains and the Sun still emits direct light. Even though the sunlight is greatly reduced, it is still not possible to safely view with the naked eyes. Solar filters must be used throughout. As a result, key features of the Total Solar Eclipse such as the corona and seeing stars/planets are missing but ones will still experience the gradual dimming of light, fauna reactions, the approaching darkness (moon’s shadow) on the horizon and seeing the Ring. It is still a rare opportunity to watch Baily’s Beads can generally be had from the edges of the path of the annular eclipse.



Look for the brightest planet, Venus, shining east of the sun at mid-eclipse. Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars are up there too, but they are fainter and so will be harder to see.

Viewing the sun eclipse safely

Watching a solar eclipse will be a breath taking experience especially because of it’s rarity, mystery and religious beliefs. However, it comes with a warning! Our sun emits dangerous radiations. Never look directly at the Sun without proper solar filter even when if the Sun is almost completely blocked during the solar eclipse.

Solar UV radiation can burn the retinas at the back of your eyes, and cause permanent damage or even blindness. Avoid using improper solar filters such CD, plastic bag, sunglasses, exposed x-ray film etc. to view the sun as harmful radiation can still pass through these objects. You can purchase a solar eclipse glass. Another safe method of viewing the sun is to use a projection of the sun using small pin-hole camera or binocular or a small telescope.

Upcoming activities and observation for this eclipse will be updated on this page soon.

Eclipse glasses are available now (limited quantity) in Brunei

Different ways to view the solar eclipse safely

Eclipse Climatogy

Graph of satellite-based cloud amount along the central axis of the eclipse based on observations from 2002 to 2016. The red line shows cloudiness derived from 10:30 am satellite passage; the blue line is extracted from 1:30 pm passes. Locations of places along (but not necessarily on) the central line are shown on the graphs. Source: NASA.

According to eclipsophile.com, for the South East Asian countries, the increasing southeasterly track of the Moon’s shadow takes it deep into equatorial moisture and the extensive cloudiness. The centreline trace of monthly cloudiness in figure above shows values of over 75% in Sri Lanka, a value that increases a further 10% by the peninsula of North Sumatera (Sumatra). At Singapore, where totality occurs at noon, satellite measurements of cloud cover reach 95%, a value that seems far too high in view of the approximately 33 percent of possible sunshine at most stations shown in table below.

However, the surface-based cloud observations are in close agreement, with no observations at all of clear skies and a 93-100% frequency of broken and overcast skies at most of the stations. This is a very cloudy region of the globe, especially in the afternoon.

Surface observations of weather elements at selected locations over SE Asia along the eclipse track . Cloud-cover observations are taken at the time of the eclipse. The average cloud amount is calculated from the individual observations of cloud frequency categories. (Source: http://eclipsophile.com/annular-solar-eclipses/ase2019/)

“Ring of Fire” eclipse expedition to Kuching from BSB, Brunei

Bruneian eclipse chasers who are interested to join our expedition to watch the spectacular Ring of Fire from Kuching, Borneo, can register and join our WhatsApp discussion via www.bruneiastronomy.org/expedition



This is a must for eclipse chasers as the next annular solar eclipse to take place from Borneo will not happen until 21 May 2031!





