I was pretty excited when I woke up this morning. There were a lot of other people living in Japan who were pretty excited, too. Today at approximately 7:30am (Tokyo time), the moon passed completely in front of the sun to form an "annular" solar eclipse. Don't confuse the name with "annual" (or "anal"). . . This particular astrological event does NOT happen once a year. It's quite rare, in fact. The last annular solar eclipse visible from Japan occurred in 1839.
What does "annular" mean? There are three types of solar eclipses: Partial, Annular, and Total eclipses. A partial eclipse is when the moon only blocks a portion of the sun, like this:
A total eclipse is when the moon completely covers the entire circle of the sun. When this happens you can see the corona of the sun (like a burst of flame) that surrounds the center orb of the sun. It's pretty cool:
An annular eclipse is when the moon passes completely in front of the sun, but its apparent size is not quite large enough to cover the entire circle of the sun. A small ring of the sun remains, giving this type of eclipse the nickname: "Ring of Fire. (Yes, Haidee and I both immediately thought of Lord of the Rings). Compare the annular eclipse with the Ring of Power from Tolkien's LOTR. I think you can see the resemblance is quite obvious:
This Ring of Fire eclipse is a pretty spectacular phenomena. And, because it's so rare, people made special arrangements in Japan. Schools even opened early so teachers could view the event with their students. The Japanese economy enjoyed a nice boost with approximately 24 billion yen (308 million dollars) of sales of equipment like solar filter glasses, to enable people to view the eclipse without damaging their eyes.
Ever since third grade (when I made a Quaker oatmeal container planetarium that projects constellations on the ceiling) I've loved absolutely loved astronomy, so you can bet that when I heard about today's eclipse from my students I started making plans. A couple nights ago I started dreaming (literally, while I was asleep) about what the eclipse would be like, and how I would protect my eyes - like using multiple pairs of sunglasses, or just taking a picture of it with my digital camera). I was so excited that I probably woke up 3 or 4 times this morning before my alarm went off at 6:30am.
The eclipse that I witnessed in my last dream was so incredible: I could even see constellations and galaxies behind the sun! (probably not possible, even during a total solar eclipse). When I finally got out of bed at 6:30am and pulled back the curtains, here's what I saw:
Alas! A completely cloudy sky in Fukushima City obstructed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I was pretty disappointed. I spent the next hour surfing the internet looking for the next time in my life I would have the opportunity to view such a spectacular astronomical event. I narrowed down the search criteria to annular or total eclipses occurring in either the USA or Japan. The good news: there are about 10 more occurrences in the next 70 years that I might possibly have a chance to see. The bad news. . . . I might need to travel to northern Alaska or the UP of Michigan to see one. And then there's always the probability of cloudy weather. . . .
Click here to see my list of the next 11 eclipses in Japan and the USA.
Click here for instructions on how to make a planetarium out of an oatmeal container.
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