The first full day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere will bring with it one of nature’s great sky shows: an annular solar eclipse. On Sunday (June 21), the new moon will orbit between the sun and Earth and will pass squarely across the face of the sun for viewers along a very narrow path that will run through central and northeast Africa, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, northern India, and southern China including Taiwan and partially southern Europe.
The new moon instead of completely blocking the sun, it will leave a “ring of fire” from the sun when it peaks.
During a total eclipse of the sun, the entire disk of the sun is covered by the moon. The end result is a beautiful spectacle in which a beautiful halo of pearly white light — the solar corona — suddenly flashes into view.
But an annular eclipse falls just short of providing such a celestial pageant, because the moon will be just a little too far from the Earth to completely cover the disk of the sun. The dark conical shadow of the moon (called the umbra), from where we can see a total eclipse, extends for 235,600 miles (379,100 kilometers) out into space.
On Sunday, the moon’s distance from Earth will be 237,100 miles (381,500 km) from Earth. So the moon’s dark umbral shadow will fall 1,500 miles (2,400 km) short of reaching the Earth’s surface. In such a case, an annular eclipse results.
Visibility
IMPORTANT: Be sure to wear proper eye protection like eclipse glasses if you observe the eclipse in person!
This map shows the region of visibility (in percent of sun coverage) for the “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse of June 21, 2020. (Image credit: © Dominic Ford/In-The-Sky.org)
In Greece the solar eclipse will start short before 8 a.m. and it is estimated that the covering of the sun will be bigger in the south and the east part of the country (some 30% in Rhodes) and smaller in the north and the west (13% in Corfu).
In Athens the covering will reach about 11% of the sun surface.
the phenomenon starts at 7:48 a.m., will reach its peak at 8:28 and will conclude at 9:11.
The phenomenon will last 1 hour and 23 minutes.
According to space.com, You can watch the event live online in these webcasts if you don’t leave near its visibility path. Most webcasts begin at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT). The eclipse itself begins at 11:45 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 20 (0345 GMT Sunday), peaks at 2:40 a.m. EDT (0640 GMT) and ends at 5:34 a.m. EDT (1034 GMT) June 20. Here’s a list of times for the start and end of the eclipse, depending on your viewing location, from Dominic Ford of In-The-Sky.org.
On the occasion….
IMPORTANT: Be sure to wear proper eye protection like eclipse glasses if you observe the eclipse in person!
