@Physics_Feed - Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse, June 21st 2020

This solar eclipse is an Annular Solar Eclipse, which will occur on Sunday 21st June 2020 between 3:40 and 9:35am UTC. It can be seen from much of Asia and Africa, the South-East of Europe, Northern Australia and parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. More information about this type of eclipse can be found below.
For detailed information on if, and how you can see the eclipse from your location, use this website: Solar Eclipse Info (timeanddate.com).

In this animation, the small red dot centred in the shaded circle shows the places where the sun will be completely covered by the moon (totality). The rest of the shaded area is where the eclipse can be seen from, but the moon will only cover a portion of the sun; more of the sun will be covered closer to the centre, where the red dot is. The time zone in the animation is Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). The time under 'Central duration' shows how long totality will last at the location of the red dot.

If you have any questions, feel free to direct message me on Twitter, or reply to a tweet I've posted and I'll get back to you.

Credit: A. T. Sinclair, NASA

Safety

The sun should only be observed using special filters, which block most of the light from the sun. The sun is dangerous not only because of the intensity of the light, but also because of the radiation emitted which can damage your eyes. To observe the sun with your eyes, you must use solar observing glasses, which can be purchased for a small cost online. An alternative to this, is #14 arcwelder's glass. Do not use sunglasses, polarised filters, or stacked layers of these objects.

For a detailed guide on how to view the eclipse safely, using a variety of methods, see here: Safe Observation (skyandtelescope.org).

If the sun is completely, 100%, covered by the moon (totality), it is safe to view with the naked eye or with any telescopes, binoculars or cameras without filters. You should only look at an eclipse with the naked eye if you are confident that 100% of the sun is covered and only if you know exactly how long totality will last, so you can finish observing before totality ends.

Information About Eclipses

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun. The Moon blocks light coming from the sun and parts of the Earth lay in the shadow created by the Moon. Eclipses occur because the Moon is around 400 times smaller than the Earth, but the sun if about 400 times further away than the moon, hence they appear the same size in the sky and the moon is able to completely block all light from the sun. One solar eclipse is usually visible from around half of the Earth.

A partial solar eclipse is when the moon only covers a portion of the sun - this is able to be seen in many places around the world.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely covers the disc of the sun at any point during an eclipse.
Totality is when the moon completely blocks all light from the sun. During totality, the sky goes dark, as if it were night, temperatures fall, and the sun's corona (atmosphere) can be seen around the moon. Totality cannot be seen from anywhere in the world only in certain places dependant on the position of the sun and moon.
An annular solar eclipse is when the moon covers the sun's centre, but the sun can be seen around the edge of the moon - called a 'ring of fire'.

Partial Solar Eclipse

Total Solar Eclipse (Totality)

Annular Solar Eclipse

Credit: Fred Espenak, NASA

This more complicated diagram shows the path of the eclipse. The red line shows the line along which the moon will be observed to completely cover the sun. The horizontal lines above and below the red line labelled '0.2', '0.4' and so on indicate the proportion of the sun which will be covered by the moon from that location. The vertical lines labelled with times show the time in UTC at which the eclipse will be visible from each location. The point marked 'Greatest Eclipse' is the location at which maximum eclipse occurs. This is the midpoint of the time of totality.

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