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Annular Solar Eclipse "Ring of Fire" hits the North America continent.

Watch it live at NASA's official broadcast: youtu.be/LlY79zjud-Q

in reply to Roma

I missed the live but saw some of the replays. It is always astonishing to me that the alignment of the moon and the sun and their sizes are so damn good, that allows s to observer such rare events.
in reply to Tio

Yup, mesmerizing.. And even the fact that these exact parameters - the sizes of the Moon and the Sun and the distances between them and Earth, allow to observe full or annular eclipses from the surface how they are, is so unique to our planet. There's no other planet in our solar system which allows to see such a perfect coverage of the sun by its moon or moons.
in reply to Roma

yup that's what I was saying - quite something. ofc nothing compares to seeing it in reality. did you see any full solar eclipse directly?
in reply to Tio

Yeah, I've seen one, but only partial. It was still surreal tho, seeing how it becomes way darker in the mid of the day 🤯 And you?
in reply to Roma

Yes I saw a full one when I was 12. I remember even now. Quite vividly. Yeah so bizarre to see day transform into night so quickly. I'd love to see one now through my telescope :D
in reply to Tio

@tio
I was told that you're not supposed to look at a solar eclipse directly without using special eclipse glasses to protect your eyes, be safe guys! 🙃
@Tio
in reply to Rokosun

We had special googles. You can't even look at it that well without googles.
in reply to Roma

@Roma @Tio

You know why the moon can perfectly cover the sun during a solar eclipse? There's nothing mysterious about it, the moon is actually getting further away from Earth as its orbit grows about 1.5 inches larger every year, it's just that all of us happen to live around the exact time where earth and moon are at the right distance away to make total solar eclipse possible - a wonderful coincide 🙂 However this also means we won't always have this kind of eclipse forever as the moon gets further away from earth.

spaceplace.nasa.gov/total-sola…

@Tio @Roma