Monday, May 21, 2012

Views of the annular solar eclipse - May 20, 2012

Last night (Sunday, May 20), many parts of the U.S. were treated to an annular solar eclipse, or part of it (known as a partial eclipse).  We pulled a few images of the eclipse from a variety of sources and placed them below. 

Slooh (events.slooh.com) maintained a live video feed throughout the event from a couple of western U.S. locations where the annular eclipse would be best viewed. A couple of screenshots of their feeds are shown below.

The above was taken as Slooh's site in California experienced the "ring of fire," in which a ring of the sun is apparent around the moon.

The second shot was taken in New Mexico.  Note the orange ring of the sun surrounding the black disk that is the moon.

Locally, a partial eclipse was photographed from the Mississippi River bluffs. Photo credit: Austen Onek
The TX panhandle was the prime viewing spot for the eclipse as the sun set during the annular phase. Photo credit: Greg Jackson (NWS Midland, TX).
The next major solar eclipse event is a total eclipse which will occur across a wide swath of the U.S. in 2017.  Expect a lot of press and hoopla leading up to this event as a total eclipse visible in the U.S. is rare!  For more on this particular event, check out our recent blog post leading up to the eclipse.

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