Ring of Fire' Eclipse 2019
DEC 25, 2019
The ‘Ring of Fire’ annular solar eclipse will occur on December 26, 2019. Here is all you need to know about this rare and highly interesting astronomical event.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the Sun and totally or partly obscure the Sun for observers on Earth. An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon is near its apogee, the farthest distance from Earth. The new moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, so it can not cover the solar disk completely. This creates a “ring of fire” effect when the Sun looks like an annulus ("ring-shaped" from Latin).

The ‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse will be the final eclipse of the year. The track for the annular solar eclipse will commence near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where it will be or 154 km wide. The eclipse will then sweep southeast across southern India near Kannar (narrowing to 129 km), cross through Malaysia, the southern Philippines, and Guam, and end in the North Pacific.

The accompanying partial eclipse will be visible over a broad region covering southern Russia, across Asia to northeastern Africa, and northern Australia. None of the eclipse will be visible from the Americas. Maximum eclipse, when 94.11% of the Sun’s disk will be covered, will occur for 3 minutes and 39.9 seconds southwest of Singapore starting at 05:24 GMT. This rare celestial event will happen again in Singapore only in 2063.

As a rule, solar and lunar eclipses come in pairs - a solar eclipse always takes place either about 2 weeks before or after a lunar eclipse, and vice versa. On January 10-11, 2020 a penumbral lunar eclipse will occur. It will be visible from Africa, Europe, Asia, Alaska, and Australia.

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