Even in the 21st century, the meeting of the Sun and Moon in the day time sky amazes millions of people on our planet. Sky watchers from Asia and the western U.S., along with untold numbers of armchair viewers via the Internet, watched an annual eclipse of the Sun on Monday (Tokyo) and Sunday (U.S.)
This eclipse really began two weeks ago with the Supermoon that we enjoyed when the Full Moon was 14% larger which two weeks later meant that the New Moon was smaller as it was at apogee. This is why the New Moon could not completely cover or eclipse the Sun.
The "Ring of Fire" was on full display and observers at National Parks and observatories in the U.S. and an expedition on Mount Fuji in Japan had a ringside seat. The view on the Internet was excellent from a number of sources as well. I have not seen any photos from the NASA JAXA Hinode solar satellite yet and am looking forward to seeing the results.
The next next U.S. annular eclipse of the Sun occurs in 2023. Our next total solar eclipse in the U.S. is in August 2017.
Tomorrow I will give a sneak preview to the next visitor to cross the Sun - and it will be visible for us on the east coast and a lot of the world.
Sky Guy in VA
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