{"id":19056,"date":"2017-02-25T21:31:28","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T13:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/watch-on-the-web-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-serves-as-a-warmup-for-totality\/"},"modified":"2017-02-25T21:31:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T13:31:28","slug":"watch-on-the-web-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-serves-as-a-warmup-for-totality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/watch-on-the-web-ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-serves-as-a-warmup-for-totality\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch on the Web: \u2018Ring of Fire\u2019 solar eclipse serves as a warmup for totality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Annular
A montage of images shows the progression of an annular solar eclipse in May 2012, as seen from Red Bluff, Calif. (Brocken Inaglory Photo via Wikimedia \u2013 CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Skywatchers in South America and Africa will be seeing an unusual \u201cRing of Fire\u201d solar eclipse on Sunday, and the rest of us should be able to look over their shoulders online.<\/p>\n

But you might have to get up before sun-up to catch the show.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s event is known as an annular solar eclipse, with \u201cannular\u201d coming from the Latin word for \u201cring.\u201d<\/p>\n

All solar eclipses take place when the moon comes between Earth and the sun, blocking out the sun\u2019s disk. If the orbital mechanics are such that the moon totally blocks the disk, that\u2019s a total eclipse. But if the moon is too far away from Earth to cover all of the sun, the bright edge of the disk is still exposed at the height of the event. Hence the ring of fire.<\/p>\n

That ring is visible only from a track of territory that\u2019s no more than 55 miles wide. A partial eclipse is visible along a wider track, but North Americans will be totally out of luck this time around. Check out Xavier Jubier\u2019s interactive Google map for the details.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in Chile or Argentina in South America, or Angola, Zambia or the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, good for you. But even if you\u2019re in Seattle, you should be able to see the spectacle online.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O5MhzpbSeVI&feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n

The Slooh virtual observatory will be live-streaming views from the eclipse zone on Sunday, starting bright and early at 4 a.m. PT. TimeAndDate.com is providing an alternative video stream in partnership with Slooh, starting at 4:10 a.m. PT.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to get up quite that early to see the ring, which is visible only for a minute or so during the peak of the eclipse. That peak comes a few minutes after 5:30 a.m. PT for South America, and around 8:25 a.m. PT for Africa.<\/p>\n

Live video coverage is due to end around 9:35 a.m. PT. Even if you miss the eclipse in real time, you can catch up with the recorded video, plus the still imagery that will undoubtedly be posted to sites such as SpaceWeather.com.<\/p>\n

Consider the Ring of Fire to be a warmup for the total solar eclipse that will be visible in the United States on Aug. 21. The great thing about this summer\u2019s eclipse is that you don\u2019t have to see it online. A partial eclipse will be visible throughout North America, and if you can get to the track of totality \u2013 which runs from Oregon to South Carolina \u2013 you should do it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too early to make your plans. Check out our T-minus-1-year preview and this week\u2019s six-month countdown for August\u2019s totally all-American eclipse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A montage of images shows the progression of an annular solar eclipse in May 2012, as seen from Red Bluff, Calif. (Brocken Inaglory Photo via Wikimedia \u2013 CC BY-SA 3.0) Skywatchers in South America and Africa will be seeing an unusual \u201cRing of Fire\u201d solar eclipse on Sunday, and the rest of us should be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4378,1418],"class_list":["post-19056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-skywatching","tag-solar-eclipse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}