Annular Solar Eclipse: 26 February 2017

On Sunday 26 Febuary 2017 there will be an annular solar eclipse.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, totally or partly obscuring the Sun. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring).

An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. It will be visible across southern South America in the morning and it ends in south-western Africa at sunset.

There will also be a total solar eclipse on Monday 21 August 2017. It will be similar to the annular solar eclipse, but with no ring because every part of the Sun will be blocked from view. Totality (total darkness) occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometers wide. This eclipse will be visible in America (the first total solar eclipse visible from southeastern United States since the solar eclipse of 7 March 1970). The partial solar eclipse will be seen in all of North America, northern South America, western Europe, and Africa.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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