Annular solar eclips 21 june 2020: Eclipses an overview of 2020

The eclipse day gone. We had watched the first, and for us the last too the solar eclipse of 2020. At kerala 11:38 the eclipse became maximum and cloudy climate had destroyed the maximum view but in all this partial eclipse was really a nice one.

Eclipses are of 4 types.

A total eclipse occurs when the dark silhouette of the Moon completely obscures the intensely bright light of the Sun, allowing the much fainter solar corona to be visible. During any one eclipse, totality occurs at best only in a narrow track on the surface of Earth. This narrow track is called the path of totality.

An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon.

A hybrid eclipse (also called annular/total eclipse) shifts between a total and annular eclipse. At certain points on the surface of Earth, it appears as a total eclipse, whereas at other points it appears as annular. Hybrid eclipses are comparatively rare.

A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line with the Earth and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the umbra passes above the Earth's polar regions and never intersects the Earth's surface. Partial eclipses are virtually unnoticeable in terms of the Sun's brightness, as it takes well over 90% coverage to notice any darkening at all. Even at 99%, it would be no darker than civil twilight. Of course, partial eclipses (and partial stages of other eclipses) can be observed if one is viewing the Sun through a darkening filter (which should always be used for safety).

History

A solar eclipse of June 15, 763 BC mentioned in an Assyrian text is important for the chronology of the ancient Near East.
There have been other claims to date earlier eclipses. The Book of Joshua 10:13 describes an event that a group of University of Cambridge scholars concluded to be the annular solar eclipse that occurred on 30 October 1207 BC.
The Chinese king Zhong Kang supposedly beheaded two astronomers, Hsi and Ho, who failed to predict an eclipse 4,000 years ago.
Perhaps the earliest still-unproven claim is that of archaeologist Bruce Masse, who putatively links an eclipse that occurred on May 10, 2807 BC with a possible meteor impact in the Indian Ocean on the basis of several ancient flood myths that mention a total solar eclipse.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Thales of Miletus predicted an eclipse that occurred during a battle between the Medes and the Lydians. Both sides put down their weapons and declared peace as a result of the eclipse.
Chinese records of eclipses begin at around 720 BC.[59] The 4th century BC astronomer Shi Shen described the prediction of eclipses by using the relative positions of the Moon and Sun.
The first known telescopic observation of a total solar eclipse was made in France in 1706.
Nine years later, English astronomer Edmund Halley accurately predicted and observed the solar eclipse of May 3, 1715.
By the mid-19th century, scientific understanding of the Sun was improving through observations of the Sun's corona during solar eclipses. The corona was identified as part of the Sun's atmosphere in 1842, and the first photograph (or daguerreotype) of a total eclipse was taken of the solar eclipse of July 28, 1851. Spectroscope observations were made of the solar eclipse of August 18, 1868, which helped to determine the chemical composition of the Sun.

in 2020

In this year we have 6 eclipses 2 solar and 4 lunar. 3 of them are over till now and we indians have no luck to watch 3 upcoming eclipses because those all are outside india.

10–11 Jan

Lunar Eclipse

(Penumbral)

Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, Much of North America, East in South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Arctic

5–6 Jun

Lunar Eclipse

(Penumbral)

Much of Europe, Much of Asia, Australia, Africa, South/East South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Antarctica

21 Jun

Solar Eclipse

(Annular)

South/East Europe, Much of Asia, North in Australia, Much of Africa, Pacific, Indian Ocean