Solar Eclipse from a Ship
Image Credit:
Fred Espenak
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.
From the Indian Ocean off the coast of western Australia,
ship-borne eclipse chasers were able to witness 62 seconds
of totality though
while anchored near the centerline of the total eclipse track.
This ship-borne image of the eclipse captures
the active Sun's magnificent outer atmosphere or
solar corona streaming into space.
A composite of 11 exposures ranging from 1/2000 to 1/2 second,
it records an extended range of brightness
to follow details of the corona not quite visible to the eye during
the total eclipse phase.
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.