Solar eclipses have fascinated humanity since ancient times and the annular eclipse of October 14, 2023 was no different. Unlike a total solar eclipse where the Moon blots out the entire disk of the Sun, annular eclipses happen when the Moon is near its farthest point in its orbit around the Earth with its apparent size being just a touch smaller than the Sun’s. This results in almost all of the Sun being blocked by the Moon save for an annulus of light around the dark Moon (hence, the name). With the path of the eclipse stretching across the Western Hemisphere, hundreds of millions of people witnessed at least a partial eclipse on this day.
A map showing the path of the October 14, 2023 annular eclipse. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA-GSFC/Fred Espenak)
Naturally, I had to go out and see the eclipse for myself from my home north of Boston even though only about 17% of the Sun’s disk would be blocked. As luck would have it, a thick layer of clouds moved over my area as the eclipse started leaving only a fuzzy blob visible when the eclipse hit its maximum as seen from my home at about 1:25 PM EDT (17:25 GMT) with just a hint of a “bite” taken out by the Moon. Thankfully, the view of the Moon’s shadow moving across the Earth as seen by Earth orbiting satellites was unaffected and spectacular. The video below shows a sequence of full-disk GeoColor images from the GOES-East weather satellite in geosynchronous orbit above the Atlantic Ocean covering from 15:00 to 20:00 GMT.
Although a bit of a disappointment for those of us affected by the cloud cover, it was a nice preview for many of the total solar eclipse predicted to be visible over most of North American on April 8, 2024 – only six months away!
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See the Solar Eclipse page on Drew Ex Machina.