Third and the last solar eclipse has passed on Earth

Third and the last solar eclipse of this year has occurred today on 26 December 2019. At about 9 o’clock in the morning MSK, a solar shadow had passed almost alongside the Earth’s equator, over the numerous archipelagos of Indonesia, including the largest archipelago’s islands — Sumatra and Kalimantan. The eclipse half-shadow (much wider area where the Sun does not seem to be fully obscured but only partially), with its lower part, crossed over Australia, and upper part, over the south of the Eurasian continent, including but very slightly, the territory of the Russian Federation.

Since the eclipse is of a ring shape it almost didn’t attract the attention of the scientists. The shape means that the Moon covering the Sun is in the further part of its orbit and has a smaller visible size than usual. For this reason, it cannot cover the Sun fully and, even at the maximum phase of the eclipse, there is a remaining luminous rim of the Sun around the Moon - a ring. The brightness of this rim is enough to block corona's radiation - the outer extended part of the solar atmosphere, for which observation the astronomers travel to scientific expeditions. Nevertheless, for the astronomical photography fans such a spectacular event is no less effective than the total eclipse. There is no doubt that in the coming days a lot of pictures will appear in forums and sites which, as already mentioned, were taken mainly over the territory of Indonesia.

There are 2 solar eclipses expected in the next year 2020. First one will take place on 21 June 2020, which will also be a ring-shaped eclipse and second one, on 14 December 2020. This should be a full eclipse. In total, there are at least 2 and no more than 4 eclipses in a year. It is extremely rare to observe five eclipses in one year though. The first in this case will be already occurring in the first days of the coming year and the last, at the very end of December. The path of the ring-shaped eclipse in 2020 will cross over China and Mongolia, it will be possible to observe the sun penumbra in significant parts of Russia though. The path of the full eclipse in 2020 will cross near the lowest point of South America. It won't be possible to observe it on the territory of the Russian Federation.