On Thursday, June 10, the Sun will appear as a burning ring around the darkened Moon.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
This spectacle – an annular or “ring-shaped” eclipse – will be visible only from a fairly narrow track across north-eastern Canada, north-western Greenland, the Arctic Ocean, and far eastern Siberia. But the region over which the Sun can be seen in partial eclipse is far wider, including the north-eastern US, much of Canada, almost all of Europe, and much of Asia.
Our space view shows Earth just after the moment of New Moon, which is 10:53 Universal Time, or 5 or more hours earlier by American clocks.
The broad arrow represents the flight of Earth along the ecliptic plane in one minute. The arrow on the equator shows how far Earth rotates in one hour. In the background, from this viewpoint, are stars in Scorpius.
The yellow trident is sunlight coming from overhead, nearly as far north as the Tropic of Cancer at this time of year, not long before the June solstice.
The Moon has passed its ascending node, northward through the ecliptic plane, 18 hours earlier, so its shadow sweeps the northern part of Earth. And the core of the shadow, the umbra, from within which the Sun cannot be seen, almost misses. It tapers to an end before reaching Earth’s surface. The dashed lines enclose the antumbra, a counter-cone, from within which the Sun can be seen as a ring around the Moon. On the surface is the path the antumbra traces. Ellipses along this path are the footprints of the antumbra at hourly intervals.
At essentially the mid moment of the eclipse, the antumbra goes over Earth’s north pole. This can happen because in June the planet’s north pole is tilted toward the Sun.
It is only in total eclipse that the Moon and sky go black and the stars appear. In annular eclipse, as in partial ones, the sky remains blue, and the Moon appears merely as a part of the blue sky, invading across the Sun. But because of the reduced sunlight there is an eerie sense of semi-darkness.
Here are the middle stages of the eclipse as seen from the north pole.
The Sun’s outline is shown at 5-minute intervals, from 15 minutes before mid eclipse to 15 minutes after, as it appears to slide behind the Moon. You can see that there is no stage in which the Moon completely covers the Sun.
So much for the annular component of this eclipse. Now for the partial.
In our space view, the large gray patch marked “11:00,” slightly darker away from its edge, is the footprint of the Moon’s penumbra or partial shadow, from within which some of the Sun can be seen. Large curves are the outlines of this penumbra at hourly intervals. The envelope of these curves is the limit of partial eclipse.
Eclipse is slight and brief near the southern edge of this area; deeper and longer near the central path. For north-eastern North America – roughly, north of a line from the Carolina coast to midway along the US-Canada border – the Sun will be seen about half eclipsed at and after dawn. For Europe, partial eclipse will be toward the middle of the day. Along Mediterranean coasts, the Moon will make a barely perceptible nick in the Sun’s southern edge; for Scotland and Norway, it will cover up to 30 percent of the Sun.
Another kind of eclipse
June 4 was a sad anniversary.
Tiananmen means “Heavenly Peace Gate.” It is the name of Beijing’s huge main square.
In 1989, demonstrations in China, led by students and protesting against one-party rule, corruption, and inequalities brought by the new market economy, spread to a hundred cities, and in Beijing swelled until a million protesters camped in Tiananmen Square. The government of Deng Xiaoping imposed martial law and sent 300,000 troops into the city. The number killed was about 300 according to the government, up to 3,400 according to other sources.
This image of a lone student trying to persuade the troops not to attack their fellow citizens has come to symbolize the atrocity at the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
Our Amnesty International group in Greenville worked from 1991 to 1993 for a businessman who had helped a student leader escape the crackdown after the massacre and had been sent to prison for four years (the student had got away to America). And from 1993 to 1999 we worked for an impressively bright young couple who had been imprisoned for helping organize their fellow Foreign Ministry employees to join the march to Tiananmen Square.
In 1997 I was in Beijing, on the way from Mongolia, where I wanted to see the March 9 total solar eclipse, to Hong Kong, which I wanted to see before it was handed over from British to Chinese rule. I walked along Beijing’s ceremonial north-south axis, past the Embrasured Gate and the mausoleum of Mao Zedong and across Tiananmen Square, overlooked by the Great Hall of the People. An electric display ticked away the countdown of minutes and seconds to the Hong Kong handover.
Hong Kong is an amazing place, a nest of energy. Its core, a vertical city of stairways and skyscrapers, looks down across harbors and airport runways to the surprisingly large wild hinterland that separates it from China.
Under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China, retaining most of its democracy; “one country, two systems.” This lasted till June 2019, when a law was proposed that would allow extradition of people from Hong Kong to China for trial. It provoked massive protests, which kept on for months till the crackdown that has lost Hong Kong to the democratic world.
In China, even mentioning the June 4 “Tiananmen Square incident,” as it is called, is discouraged, and any commemoration of it is forbidden by law. In Hong Kong, the anniversary has been a major annual event. This picture of a past year’s occasion in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park gives a sense of the place’s excitement.
This year, for the first time, journalists in Hong Kong are not allowed to mention the event or any commemoration.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Bob King on skyandtelescope.com pointed out that in parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, and Ontario, the annular eclipse will happen shortly before sunrise. Bob lives in Duluth and anticipates a unique dawn:
“I’m especially interested in this eclipse because I live in the negative path of annularity, where the Sun will be in annular eclipse shortly before sunrise. I’m envisioning a bizarre twilight that begins normally but then stalls as annularity approaches before resuming its normal (though perhaps muted) progression just before sunrise. The quality of the light during this time should be fascinating to watch as well as any effects the solar annulus might have on clouds along the eastern horizon.
“From many central U.S. and southern Canada locations the maximum obscuration occurs before sunrise, so the best views will be just as the Sun comes up with the Moon’s egress underway. Locations farther east will see maximum eclipse after sunrise.”
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/a-sunrise-annular-solar-eclipse/
Mrs Thatcher and Sir Chris Patten sold out Hong Kong.as per the treaty only the New Territories had to be returned to the PRC,Hong Kong Island and Kowloon where perpetually English territory.As Thatcherism was mainly,only?, about money and the market and all human relationship’s where financial transactions,she handled over all of Hong Kong to secure trade deals with the PRC.what should have happened should have been an independence vote with 3 options;1/remain tied to England,2/join the PRC,3/full independence.i’m sure that very few people would have voted for option 2/.What we have now is a fading quasi state in limbo and limbo drawing to a close rapidly.
Thank you for the informative post. Hoping to see a very unique sunrise Thursday morning.
I feel bad for the Hong Kong citizens and all the people of China, especially the Ouighers. At least Taiwan is still free and prosperous. South Vietnam could have been as vibrant as South Korea if popular support for the Vietnam war hadn’t tanked.
Guy, I am taking the time on this post to tell you how wonderful your posts are in all respects, both astronomical and political. I LOVE your posts and am sure there are many others like me who do not take the time often enough to just say thank you. Keep up the wonderful work.
Thank you, Carl!
I have hospital in Newcastle on the 10th at 10hr.to learn how to inject an anti Lymphoma drug called Interferon Alpha (I suspect that a sort of EpiPen thing will be used).not very convenient for the eclipse but the plan is to take my 25mm Pocket Borg refractor and camera tripod and set it up outside the hospital as the greatest coverage is at 1130.if I’m feeling lazy then just my Google Pixel 3a phone,3x Big Eye lense and solar film.one slight advantage is that Newcastle is 28 miles further north than where I live so a bit more coverage of the solar disk.of course all academic if it’s cloudy.thin clouds tonight but I did see my first noculuicent clouds of 2021 last night.
Kevan, best wishes for good health, clear skies, and a good view of the eclipse.
Thanks but things went well on Monday as after the removal of the lymph node(groin) the new medication had been sent to the wrong hospital so they arranged for it to be sent back to the right one and the nurse said as I was there she might as well show me how to inject the Interferon Alpha anti Lymphoma agent on the spot so I didn’t have to go back on Thursday and was able to view the partial solar eclipse from my backyard.well when I say went well,went well for my astronomy but I await the results of the lymph node biopsy to know if the Lymphoma has infiltrated them….well sort of astronomy as Carl Sagan said,’we’re made of star stuff’, everything including the rare Lymphoma called Mycosis Fungoides was forged in the bellies of ancient stars.
I think you’ve got my email address. Please let me know how it goes. I promise not to give you any medical advice! Just good wishes.
How was the eclipse?