You might notice a dramatic dimming of the sun in mid-October if you live in certain highly-populated parts of North America or beyond.
The reason for this? An event known as an annular solar eclipse will cause the moon’s shadow to bisect large swaths of North, Central, and South America on Oct. 14, 2023.
Social media will surely furnish more ways to watch the event, which occurs only once every one or two years.
Here are the key things to know about the upcoming “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse.
What is the Ring of Fire?
Observers of the annular solar eclipse will notice a bright ring surrounding the moon as it passes directly between the Earth and the sun. This is different from a total solar eclipse, when the moon totally blocks out the sun; for a ring of fire, the moon must be slightly more distant from the Earth than usual, causing it to appear smaller. (The moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t exactly circular so sometimes it is nearer and sometimes further away.)Thus, in annular eclipses, the moon doesn’t blot out the sun entirely. Rather, a thin rim of solar light shines forth from behind the round, dark moon. The scene also presents a dimming of the sun. Also unlike total solar eclipses, in the annular variety, the sun’s signature corona (its outer atmosphere) remains invisible. Yet the ring of fire presents its own unique spectacle.
To explain the ring of fire more in astronomical terms, annular eclipses appear on positions of the Earth wherever the moon’s antumbral shadow is cast. The moon’s shadow is divided up and classified into different regions with specified degrees of sunlight visible within each.
That pitch-dark, cone-shaped region where no sunlight reaches at all is called the umbra. A total eclipse occurs in locations where the umbra is cast on Earth.
That slightly dimmed region outside the umbra, where the sun is partially obscured, is the penumbra. One will witness a partial solar eclipse in places where this falls on Earth.
Meanwhile, the partially-lit antumbra, also conical in shape but flipped opposite the umbral shadow, lines up with the sun and moon. Yet it is cast on Earth only when the moon is far enough away so that a total solar eclipse is impossible.
Next month, the antumbra will cast a great corridor along the Earth’s surface, stretching from the North Pacific, down through the Americas, ending in the South Atlantic on Oct. 14th. The ring of fire will present itself to some of the most populated regions in the Western Hemisphere.
How to Catch a Date With the Ring of Fire
Looking to make a date with a solar eclipse? Great. Here’s where and when to catch this year’s one and only ring of fire. Those viewing from regions surrounding its path will be able to observe a partial eclipse, meanwhile.Starting at 12:12 p.m. EDT, the antumbral shadow—with a path width somewhere between 118 and 136 miles (190 and 218 kilometers)—starts in the North Pacific. It hits the Oregon coast at 12:16 p.m. EDT, before sweeping through nine states of the United States, including Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The eclipse’s path reaches Texas’s Gulf coast at 12:56 p.m. EDT, before crossing the Gulf of Mexico, bisecting the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and parts of Central America, and then traversing Columbia and Brazil. The annular eclipse ends its 8,574-mile (13,800-kilometer) journey in the South Atlantic at 3:46 p.m. EDT.
Concurrently, a huge area of the globe will be able to witness a partial solar eclipse. Almost the entire continent of North America, all of Central America, and most of South America will experience some dimming of the sun on Oct. 14. The closer to the antumbral path, the more pronounced the eclipse will appear to observers.
The ring of fire will reach its moment of greatest totality (where the moon is most perfectly centered over the sun) off the coast of Nicaragua at 1:59 p.m. EDT. Hopeful eclipse spotters who happen to see this out at sea will observe precisely 90.7% of the sun obscured by a slightly smaller-than-usual, dark, round moon.
Don’t forget to bring your protective eclipse shades.
