April's spectacular geocentric celestial event [
http://www.kidsecli…] was a rare hybrid eclipse [
http://sunearth.gsf…HSE2005.html ] of the Sun - a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location. For Fred Espenak [
http://www.mreclips…TSE2005galleryA.html ], aboard a gently swaying ship within the middle of the Moon's shadow [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] 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 [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and prominences [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] rising above the Sun's edge. But for Stephan Heinsius [
http://www.stephan-…], 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 [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. 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 4000 [
http://sunearth.gsf…SEhybrid.html ].
Explanation
April's spectacular geocentric celestial event [
http://www.kidsecli…] was a rare hybrid eclipse [
http://sunearth.gsf…HSE2005.html ] of the Sun - a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location. For Fred Espenak [
http://www.mreclips…TSE2005galleryA.html ], aboard a gently swaying ship within the middle of the Moon's shadow [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] 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 [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and prominences [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] rising above the Sun's edge. But for Stephan Heinsius [
http://www.stephan-…], 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 [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. 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 4000 [
http://sunearth.gsf…SEhybrid.html ].
Explanation
