I’m so sorry for not updating my blog on this annular solar eclipse which occurred today at noon. To be honest, I was going to write about it yesterday, but unfortunately, my browser went crazy and it didn’t let me to open my site. I don’t know what happened, but it seems okay now. Anyway I hope you have observed the eclipse but by any chance if you couldn’t, click the below link to see how it looked like from Sri Lanka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5QYYI0OXG0
An Annular Solar Eclipse
An Annular Solar Eclipse takes place ONLY,
- When it is NEW MOON,
- PLUS when the moon is at or very near a lunar-node, ( where the moon’s orbital path crosses the ecliptic) so that the Earth, the moon and the Sun are aligned in a straight line,
- AND ALSO, when the Moon is at its farthest point from earth, which is known as the apogee, so the outer edge of the Sun remains visible as a ring while the Moon covers the middle part.
Rare Solstice Eclipse
This eclipse (June 21st, 2020) is a very very rare one, because many time zones experienced it exactly on the Summer Solstice day and the next coincidence of an annular solar eclipse with a Summer Solstice in this century will be on June 21st, 2039!
- The main difference between Total Solar Eclipse and Annular Solar Eclipse is that, in a Total Solar Eclipse, the Moon is at or near the perigee (nearest point from the Earth) and in an Annular one, it is at or very close to the apogee (farthest point from the Earth).
- The similarities of those two types of eclipses are that, both occurs when it is NEW MOON and Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned in a straight line. 🙂
I look forward to post a series of articles on basic Astronomy, so that it would help the beginners to build a foundation to face Astronomy Olympiads and Quizes. Go to the Homepage and hit that subscribe button to get the updates on my blog to your inbox. And also if you have any question on Science or Mathematics or History or something like that, leave it in the comment section and the next article would be on your question. Thank you for reading!
Reference
- https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2020Jun21Agoogle.html
- https://bruneiastronomy.org/web/2020/04/solar-eclipse-on-june-21-2020/
- https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2020-june-21
- https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/annular-solar-eclipse.html#:~:text=An%20annular%20solar%20eclipse%20happens,or%20annulus%20around%20the%20Moon.
