Punctual as only astronomical phenomena can be, theAnnular solar eclipse gave a show yesterday October 2, 2024 in the skies of much of South America. The luckiest were the 175,000 inhabitants in band of annularity which crossed southern Chile, southern Argentina and Easter Island: in these areas the disk of the Moon left exposed a “ring of fire” on the edge of that of the Sun. In other regions of South America, as well as in Hawaii, there was instead anpartial eclipse of the Sun. Annular eclipses occur when our satellite is near the point of its orbit furthest from the Earth (theapogee), so it appears slightly smaller in size, enough to not be able to completely cover the solar disk.
Eclipse images from Easter Island
In the video above, broadcast live from the portal Time and Dateyou can see the creation of the “ring of fire” in the evocative setting of Easter Island, in which the annularity began at 9.04 pm Italian time and lasted well 6 minutes and 4 seconds. An even more special event since the next solar eclipse on this remote island will only occur in two centuries!
The annular eclipse seen from Chile and Argentina
In continental South America the eclipse began a little later: below you can observe the annular eclipse seen from Puerto Rio Tranquiloin Chile, where the annularity began at 10.22 pm Italian time and lasted 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The maximum annularity duration recorded yesterday was 7 minutes and 25 seconds with a covering of the solar disk of 93%.
Just after Chile, the annular eclipse was no less spectacular in Patagonia:
The partial eclipse from Hawaii and South America
Outside the annularity band the solar eclipse was partialthat is, the disk of the Moon did not completely obscure that of the Sun but the alignment between the celestial bodies was not such as to create the “ring of fire”. One of the first places to observe the partial eclipse was the archipelago of Hawaiishortly after dawn:
Subsequently the partial eclipse was clearly visible in other countries such as Brazil or Uruguay. Here is a photo of the partial eclipse from the capital Motevideo:
The solar eclipse from space
Finally, here’s what the eclipse looked like from space. Below you can see the shadow cast by the Moon moving across the Pacific Ocean, spotted by Earth monitoring satellites orbiting our planet.
Why so many eclipses in America? It’s a coincidence
These days many are wondering why so many eclipses occur on the American continent: just think of the Great North American eclipse of six months ago, visible from the United States, or the annular eclipse of October 14, 2023 visible from Brazil to the United States. In reality it is a pure coincidence: eclipses do not “prefer” the American continent but they tend to be distributed quite evenly across the globe. If anything, a slight “preference” – for mainly geometric reasons – is at the very high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, which however are practically uninhabited.
