On February 26, 2017, the Earth experienced a rare and beautiful event as the moon moved between us and the sun – simultaneously casting its shadow on Earth and covering the sun – creating an annular or ring of fire eclipse. Why wasn’t it a total eclipse? The moon was too far away in its monthly orbit to cover the sun completely. But the path of the moon in front of the sun was dead-on, and thus, at mid-eclipse, an outer edge of the sun appeared briefly around the moon. Only those in the shadow path – in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere – caught this eclipse. Thanks to all who posted on EarthSky Facebook or submitted via our website!
By the way, although the eclipse didn’t get a huge amount of attention on Twitter, it did get some … a few posts below from there.
From minutes ago … https://t.co/1dnR0WmhOM
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) February 26, 2017
Satellite animation of the annularity cone shadow during the #RingofFire eclipse #Today over the Atlantic ocean pic.twitter.com/MSQc6IPuN2
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 26, 2017
Emocionante el eclipse, viéndolo desde casa. Que piel estar debe ser verlo allí, con los genios de TN! Toda la onda. pic.twitter.com/V7YWbt1JMJ
— Carolina (@CarolCeliz44) February 26, 2017
Then there are these beauties, shared via Facebook:
Bottom line: Photos of the February 26, 2017 annular – or ring of fire – eclipse.