A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth and casts a shadow on the Earth that completely or partially blocks sunlight in some areas. For a total eclipse, the Sun, Moon, and Earth must be in one line.
–
The only place this single total eclipse was visible this year was Antarctica. And the phenomenon brought there for a while a “polar night”, the period of which otherwise ended there about two months ago.
–
Only in its partial phase was the given solar eclipse observable from southern Africa, Chile, New Zealand and Australia.
–
Photographic expedition in the plane
In this context, it should be recalled that the astronomical image of NASA’s Space Day on Sunday became a photograph of Czech origin, by astrophotographer and employee of the Institute of Physics of the Silesian University in Opava, Petr Horálek. His film was titled “Total Solar Eclipse Below the Bottom of the World”.
–
“The shot shows a view of a total solar eclipse taken from the plane’s deck over the Southern Ocean. The eclipse itself lies low above the horizon in the direction of Antarctica, “Horálek specified.
–
To take a unique photo, he took part in a special flight by Chilean Airlines in cooperation with astronomers from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
–
The only total solar eclipse in 2021
Photo: Petr Horálek
As for these celestial phenomena, for example, in April 2023 there will be a so-called hybrid solar eclipse, which means that it will be physically complete after a certain waist length (and annular at the beginning of the waist). So it will be physically complete, just not along the entire length of the eclipse belt. It will be seen as complete from the tip of Western Australia, in Timor and Papua New Guinea.
–
“The eclipse will be regularly complete throughout the belt only a year later, in April 2024 in Mexico and the USA,” Horálek added for Novinky.
–
We are waiting in the Czech Republic
As the Czech Astronomical Society (ČAS) reminds on its website, Central Europe is almost avoided by total eclipses. Specifically, the people of Prague were able to observe this phenomenon for the last time on May 12, 1706, another one awaits us in the Czech Republic on October 7, 2135, when the belt of totalitarianism will run 30 kilometers north of Prague.
–
In Europe, it was last possible to observe a total eclipse in 1990, but only in the northern parts of Finland, and in 1999, when the belt of totalitarianism cut through practically the whole of Europe, but not the Czech Republic.
–
A relatively unique period will occur in Spain between 2026 and 2028. In August 2026 there will be a total solar eclipse in the evening, a year later in the morning in the south of the country, and in January 2028 a ring, which will be seen again at sunset by the people of Spain. The first two will be visible in our country as well, but only in their partial phase.
—
