An annular solar eclipse took place on February 26, 2017. 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. Occurring only 4.7 days before perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger. The moon's apparent diameter was just over 0.7% smaller than the Sun's.

Saros cycle series 140 for solar eclipses occurs at the Moon's descending node, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71 eclipses, including 47 umbral eclipses. The first eclipse in this series was on 16 April 1512 and the last will be on 1 June 2774. The most recent eclipse was an annular eclipse on 26 February 2017 and the next will be an annular eclipse on 9 March 2035.