The morning of Friday, January 15 brought with it a rare treat for millions in the Eastern hemisphere: an annular solar eclipse that lasted more than 11 minutes. It is the longest solar eclipse visible from Earth until the year 3043.
Onlookers from Central Africa to China watched in amazement, many observing cultural traditions or superstitions that date back centuries, while those of us on the other side of the world have to settle for video clips like this one.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon travels directly between Earth and the Sun. Partial solar eclipses (when a sliver of the Sun is obscured by the moon) are not as rare, but the term ‘annular solar eclipse’ refers to the annulus, or ‘ring of fire’, that appears when the shadow cast by the moon is smaller than the visible disc of the sun. Which, as you can imagine, doesn’t happen every day.
Not surprisingly, NASA has a comprehensive solar eclipse web site with all sorts of cool links, charts, data and more.