Today, sky watchers in more than 50 African countries witnessed a solar eclipse.
On Thursday, Sept. 1st, the new Moon passed in front of the sun, covering as much as 97% of the solar disk. And this is how the sun looked from around the continent:
The annular solar eclipse occurred over Africa on 1 September 2016. From Réunion Island, the first contact took place at approximately 08:23 UTC and the annular solar eclipse reached its maximum at 10:09 UTC creating an amazing “ring of fire” effect.
In an annular solar eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block out the entire Sun, leaving the Sun peeking out over the Moon’s disk in a ring of fire.
In 2012 an annular eclipse of the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern Pacific Ocean and several western U.S. states.
