of the table above, making for a relatively long eclipse duration of five minutes, 20.24 seconds. , Easter Island Total eclipse began southeast of
Tonga at approximately 18:15
UTC and reached
Easter Island by 20:11 UTC. The global sky photography project
The World At Night stationed photographers throughout the eclipse's visibility track. Eclipse chasers photographed the event on board a chartered airplane, cruise ships, numerous Pacific islands, and in Argentina's
Patagonia region. Totality was observed for four minutes and 41 seconds (4:41; 281 seconds) on
Easter Island, Approximately 4,000 observers visited Easter Island for this eclipse, including tourists, scientists, photographers, filmmakers and journalists, prompting an increase in security at its important
moai archeological sites. The eclipse occurred at the same time that the final game of the
2010 FIFA World Cup was being played in
South Africa, and many soccer fans in
Tahiti watched the match instead of observing the partial eclipse with a high percentage of obscuring the Sun by over 98%. The path of totality of this eclipse barely missed some significant inhabited islands of
French Polynesia, including passing just about 20 km south of the southern end of Tahiti. Eclipse chasers were also able to observe the eclipse at El Calafate, near the southern tip of Argentina, before the sun set just two minutes later. == Eclipse timing ==