A rare annular eclipse - a ring of
sunlight as the new moon, passing between Earth and sun, blocks most,
but not all, of the sun's disc. It is striking to see. Differing from a
total solar eclipse, the moon in an annular eclipse appears too small
to cover the sun completely, leaving a ring of fire effect around the
moon. The eclipse cast its shallow path crossing the West from west
Texas to Oregon then arcing across the northern Pacific Ocean to Tokyo,
Japan. (Taken from Boston.com) Another one won't be visible until 2023.
Chris and Amanda talked us in to coming down to see the annular eclipse. It was to be the best shot from Cedar City to St. George. In fact, the sweet spot to see in Utah was Kanarraville, just a couple miles south of Cedar City. It did not disappoint. What an exciting thing to see.
We had to have special glasses to view it.
This is what we saw when it reached its climax.
It was totally awesome, dude! Then just a couple of weeks after that we had a partial lunar eclipse. Then on June 5, was another seismic solar event. We witnessed the Transit of Venus.
The planet Venus transitted between the Earth and the
Sun. The planet appeared as a small disc passing over the Sun's
surface. This is the last transit of Venus during the 21st century, with
the next transit occurring in the year 2117. This is what it looked like (Curt, Grandma Kjar, and I watched it from about 4:30 p.m. to sunset). It was awesome!
It was just a teeny, dot crossing the face of the sun. We had to use our special glasses that we bought for the eclipse to view it. Here's another picture.
Cool stuff happening this year . . . .
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