Natural History Wanderings

EarthSky reports

2019’s only annular eclipse – the third and final solar eclipse of this year – falls on December 26. It’s visible along a narrow path in the world’s Eastern Hemisphere. Like a total solar eclipse, an annular solar eclipse happens when the new moon moves directly in front of the sun. During a total solar eclipse, the new moon completely covers over the solar disk. During an annular eclipse, the lunar disk is too small to totally cover over the sun, so an annulus – or thin ring of the sun’s surface – surrounds the new moon silhouette.

The narrow annular eclipse path (in red) starts at sunrise at left ,over Saudi Arabia. and ends at sunset at right over the North Pacific ocean. The annular eclipse takes 3 1/3 hours to traverse this 8,000 mile (12,900 km) path. At any one point on the path, however, the maximum duration of the annular eclipse is only 3 2/3 minutes. Visit EclipseWise.com for an extended version of the above map, or see TimeAndDate.com for a detailed map and local eclipse times.

Read more at  Annular solar eclipse on December 26 | Tonight | EarthSky