Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East witnessed Sunday a dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse.
June 21,2020
Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East witnessed Sunday a dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse.
So-called annular eclipses occur when the Moon—passing between Earth and the Sun—is not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure sunlight, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible.
They happen every year or two, and can only been seen from a narrow pathway across the planet.
Sunday’s eclipse arrived on the northern hemisphere’s longest day of the year—the summer solstice—when Earth’s north pole is tilted most directly towards the Sun.
The “ring of fire” was first visible in northeastern Republic of Congo from 5:56 local time (04:56 GMT) just a few minutes after sunrise.
This is the point of maximum duration, with the blackout lasting 1 minute and 22 seconds.
Arcing eastward across Africa and Asia, it reached “maximum eclipse”—with a perfect solar halo around the Moon—over Uttarakhand, India near the Sino-Indian border at 12:10 local time (0640 GMT).
More spectacular, but less long-lived: the exact alignment of the Earth, Moon and Sun was visible for only 38 seconds.
