Starship Asterisk*

A Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse

Explanation: A spectacular geocentric celestial event of 2005 was a rare hybrid eclipse of the Sun - a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location. For Fred Espenak, aboard a gently swaying ship within the middle of the Moon's shadow track about 2,200 kilometers west of the Galapagos, the eclipse was total, the lunar silhouette exactly covering the bright solar disk for a few brief moments. His camera captured a picture of totality revealing the extensive solar corona and prominences rising above the Sun's edge. But for Stephan Heinsius, near the end of the shadow track at Penonome Airfield, Panama, the Moon's apparent size had shrunk enough to create an annular eclipse, showing a complete annulus of the Sun's bright disk as a dramatic ring of fire. Pictures from the two locations are compared above. How rare is such a hybrid eclipse? Calculations show that during the 21st century just 3.1% (7 out of 224) of solar eclipses are hybrid while hybrids comprise about 5% of all solar eclipses over the period 2000 BC to AD 3000. Today's hybrid solar eclipse is most widely visible beyond the central shadow track as a brief partial eclipse from northeastern Americas through Africa, and along the track in an annular phase for only the first 15 seconds.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

Thus proving the Dragon really IS eating the Sun.....or maybe that you can't keep a Good Sun Down????

Anywhoooo....interesting results from different places, and their perspectives....

:---[===] *

This Hybrid solar eclipse is rare, indeed.

I couldn't make any sense of the description, which seems to be saying the apparent size of the Moon is different for observers only 1500 km apart, which doesn't sound right at all. But I found an explanation online which told me how it actually works. For others who might need a more specific explanation, here it is...

A hybrid eclipse is a unique type of central eclipse where parts of the path are annular while other parts are total. This duality comes about when the vertex of the Moon's umbral shadow pierces Earth's surface at some points, but falls short of the planet along other portions of the eclipse path. The curvature of Earth's surface brings some geographic locations along the path into the umbra while other positions are more distant and enter the antumbral rather than umbral shadow.

That's from this page at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's site.

Rob

Partial eclipse rained out for me.

Clouded out for me, until just minutes after its conclusion, dangfraznabbit!

I got up early for the eclipse, but the curve of the Earth's surface was in the way! Oh well, I'll just have to wait for August 21, 2017.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:
I got up early for the eclipse, but the curve of the Earth's surface was in the way!
Oh well, I'll just have to wait for August 21, 2017.

Hopefully you won't be behind the curve in 2017.