How widespread across the globe is an eclipse?

Question by havish: How widespread across the globe is an eclipse?
I am working on a project, and am wondering how visible a given solar eclipse would be on a global level.

I uploaded an image of a map with a particular eclipse that occurred (I circled it in red), but I need to know in which parts of the world the eclipse would be visible in.

Thank you!

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/6750/seatlas0719ra3.gif


Best answer:
Answer by bikenbeer2000The map you uploaded shows tracks of total and annular eclipses, but in general, the partial phase would be visible over a much wider area. An illustration is provided by the equivalent map for eclipses from 2001 to 2020:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas3/SEatlas2001.GIF compared with the map showing the visibility of partial and total phases for the eclipse of August 1st 2008:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008iau/TSE2008-fig01.GIF
Your eclipse goes back quite a long way (about 2700 years!) so I seriously doubt whether a partial phase map will be available on the Internet. One solution might be to look for a more recent eclipse with a similar track or I could run my planetarium program Starry Night for the year -712. I'll look into both these options and get back to you.

Additional notes:
OK the Starry Night planetarium program shows the region of partial eclipse as follows:
Draw a line upwards from the bottom of the map at 10 degrees east up to 50 degrees south. Then draw a line upwards and to the right across the Indian Ocean, keeping parallel with the annular track and passing below South Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka and crossing just above the Malaysian peninsula and Cambodia. The line then folllows the track of the -0719 Feb 22 eclipse until 160 degrees east. From there, draw a line straight down to the bottom, passing between Australia and New Zealand.
The Starry Night program doesn't actually show a map, but gives a 'real time' view of the progress of the eclipse across the earth, so I can't convey a map to you and this explanation will have to do - long-winded though it may be.

Give your answer to this question below!

Total Solar Eclipse | Solar Eclipse Information