|
Credit & Copyright: Gwenaöl Blanck
Explanation:
Along
a narrow path
that mostly avoided landfall,
the shadow of the New Moon raced across planet Earth's
southern hemisphere
on April 20 to create a rare
annular-total or
hybrid solar eclipse.
A mere 62 seconds of totality could be seen though,
when the dark central lunar shadow just grazed the
North West Cape, a peninsula in western Australia.
From top to bottom these panels capture the beginning, middle, and
end of that fleeting
total eclipse phase.
At start and finish, solar prominences and beads of sunlight
stream past the lunar limb.
At mid-eclipse the
central frame reveals
the sight only
easily visible during totality and most
treasured by eclipse chasers, the
magnificent corona
of the active Sun.
Of course eclipses
tend to come in pairs.
On May 5, the next Full Moon
will just miss the dark inner part of Earth's shadow
in a penumbral lunar eclipse.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: solar eclipse
Publications with words: solar eclipse
See also: