Eclipse

For obvious reasons given the disaster in Haiti a week ago, a significant celestial event that occurred last Friday flew under the radar: only the longest annular solar eclipse that will occur in the next 1,033 years. The following time-lapse video from the Maldives tells the story:



Unless you’re one of my loyal readers from East Africa, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka (you know who you are), you didn’t get a shot at seeing this momentous occasion. No worries, though. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll get your shot in seven and a half years on August 21, 2017. If you know how eclipses work, you know that only a narrow portion of the Earth has the luxury of seeing the brunt of the eclipse:


Don’t know about the rest of you, but if at all possible, I’m heading to western Kentucky to get a shot at this annular eclipse. If you have to miss it, no worries...the moon is scheduled to pass right over my current home, Dallas, TX, on April 8, 2024, resulting this time in a total solar eclipse:


For the record, a total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth intersects the “umbra” portion of the Moon’s shadow and so is totally obscured, while an annular eclipse occurs when the umbra does not reach Earth. In other words, the moon is a smidge farther away during an annular eclipse, and so it doesn’t completely cover the sun, resulting in a ring effect (“annular” comes from the Latin word for ring) and a totally awesome picture:


(Other images of the eclipse from BBC: click here)