Thread: 'Ring of fire' eclipse

'Ring of fire' eclipse to be visible from China to Texas
Thursday May 17, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they’ll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.

It’s been almost two decades since a “ring of fire” eclipse was visible in the continental United States.

The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the Pacific with the western U.S. viewing the tail end.

The late day sun will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle where it will occur at sunset Sunday. For 3 1/2 hours, the eclipse follows an 8,500-mile path. Viewing, from beginning to end, lasts about two hours. The ring phenomenon lasts as long as five minutes depending on location.

Outside this narrow band, parts of the West, Midwest and South — and parts of Canada and Mexico — will be treated to a partial eclipse. The Eastern Seaboard will be shut out.

A ring eclipse — technically called an annular solar eclipse — is not as dramatic as a total eclipse, when the disk of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon. As in a total solar eclipse, the moon crosses in front of the sun, but the moon is too far from Earth and appears too small in the sky to blot out the sun completely.

“A bright ring around the sun at mid-eclipse is still pretty cool,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.

The last time this type of eclipse was seen in the U.S. was in 1994. This year’s solar show offers ringside seats at 33 national parks along the eclipse path including the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. A partial eclipse can be viewed from another 125 national parks.

For die-hard sky gazers, six U.S. locations will see the moon cover about 95 percent of the sun’s diameter. They include the Petroglyph National Monument, Redwoods National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Zion National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Wherever you are, do not look directly at the eclipsed sun or you may suffer a serious eye injury. Wear specially made protective glasses that can be bought online or create your own contraption by punching a small pinhole in a cardboard box.

If you buy special eyewear, you can recycle it. Two weeks later, Venus will crawl across the face of the sun — a rare occurrence known as the “transit of Venus” that will also require viewers to take precaution.

The next ring eclipse won’t be visible in the U.S. for more than a decade — October 2023.

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Originally Posted by Mid

Two weeks later, Venus will crawl across the face of the sun — a rare occurrence known as the “transit of Venus” that will also require viewers to take precaution.

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And I thought this was going to be a thread about ruby murrays.

Published on 20 May 2012 by AssociatedPress

Millions in Asia and the Western U.S. were looking up as a rare "ring of fire" eclipse crossed the sky. The eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun, leaving only a golden "ring of fire" visible. (May 20)

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