‘Ring of Fire’ solar eclipse seen beaming across the U.S. skies

Media7 October 14, 2023

‘Ring of Fire’ or Annular Solar Eclipse was seen in the U.S. on October 14, 2023.

Varied areas such as Oregon, Honduras, Utah, and New Mexico saw rare and beautiful sights of the eclipse.(AP)

Varied areas such as Oregon, Honduras, Utah, and New Mexico saw rare and beautiful sights of the eclipse.

Moon completing the maximum eclipse during the ‘Ring of Fire’ solar eclipse in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah on October 14, 2023.(George Frey/Getty Images)

On Saturday, the sun appeared in the form of a glowing ring in parts of Northern and Southern America. Solar Eclipses occur when the moon positions itself between the sun and the earth.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is at its furthest point in its orbit around Earth, called an apogee- not completely obscuring the sun and therefore leaving behind a ring or annulus of unfiltered sunlight.

During such eclipses, the entire landscape-dims+. According to scientists, in the past, crickets started chirping, turtles emerged from water and bees headed back towards their hives.

These are absolutely rare occurrences and the next annular solar eclipse will not be occurring over the U.S. again until the year 2046.

A filtered image of the solar eclipse taken from the Astronomical Observatory at the Universidad Autonoma de Honduras in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, October 14, 2023.(Gustavo Amador/Shutterstock)

Starting from Oregon at 9 a.m. to PadreIsland, Texas around midday, the eclipse was seen across nine states across the U.S.

Full annularity lasted two to three minutes in most places in the direct path of the eclipse, though Albuquerque saw almost five minutes.

Parts of Central and South America also witnessed the eclipse.

Those areas outside the direct path in North America and South America were only able to see a partial eclipse, clouds permitting.

'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse seen in Richardson, Texas, on October 14, 2023.(LM Otero/AP) ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse seen in Richardson, Texas, on October 14, 2023.(LM Otero/AP)

NASA shared the first views of the eclipse on their X (Formerly Twitter) account, captioning, “We’re getting our first views of the “ring of fire”!

Here’s a look at the annular solar eclipse from Albuquerque, N.M., as the Moon nearly (but not completely) covers up the Sun.”

Since it is not advised to see the eclipse with the naked eye, some in the states tried to view the beaming sight with the help of makeshift devices.

An X user, Linna Winna, posted a photo of the eclipse which they viewed with the help of a makeshift device. They captioned the image, “View from Stanford with makeshift device.”

NASA commented on the post: “Safe, scientific and super awesome. We love to see it!”

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