Explaining the Difference Between Total and Annular Solar Eclipses: What You Need to Know

ANTARIKSA — An annular solar eclipse will occur on October 14, 2023. The ‘ring of fire’ annular solar eclipse can be seen throughout America.

Almost everyone has probably heard about a solar eclipse. There are several types of solar eclipses, namely total solar eclipses, partial solar eclipses and annular solar eclipses.

Many people often confuse a total solar eclipse with an annular solar eclipse. What is the difference?

Reporting from Space, both types of solar eclipses are described by astronomers as central solar eclipses. The geometric differences between the two are only slight. However, these differences have a huge influence on what observers from Earth see, feel and experience.

Why does a solar eclipse occur?
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is between the earth and the sun, thus casting a shadow on the earth. Solar eclipses occur because the moon orbits the earth every 27 days, so it is often between the earth and the sun. However, solar eclipses do not occur every month.

This is because the plane of the moon’s orbit towards the earth is tilted by 5º to the earth’s orbit towards the sun. Twice each month, the moon crosses the ecliptic (the sun’s path through the daytime sky) at points astronomers call nodes.

If the new moon crosses the ecliptic there will be a solar eclipse. This can occur during two eclipse seasons each year.

The Moon may block the Sun because on average its size is 400 times smaller than the Sun, and it is 400 times closer to Earth. Thus, both objects have very similar apparent sizes in our sky.

Total solar eclipse
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between the earth and the sun. Judging from observations on Earth, the size of the Moon appears to be the same or larger than the Sun.

To be able to witness a total solar eclipse, you have to be on the daytime side of the Earth when the solar eclipse occurs, but also be in the path of totality (the moon’s umbral shadow), which is about 16 thousand km long but only about 160 km wide.

The entire event, when the moon’s shadow slowly covers the sun, takes about three hours. However, the event when all sunlight is blocked is usually around six minutes.

A total solar eclipse gives observers the opportunity to see the sun’s outer atmosphere (corona) with the naked eye.
In non-eclipse situations, the corona will not be visible because it is blocked by the sun’s glare.

Ring solar eclipse
An annular solar eclipse is evidence that the moon’s orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical. In each orbit of the Earth, the Moon reaches perigee (closest point to Earth) and apogee (farthest point).

The perigee full moon that coincides with the full moon is often called a supermoon because it appears larger than usual.

If the new moon is near perigee and crosses the ecliptic, a total solar eclipse will occur. Meanwhile, if the new moon’s apogee (which appears smaller in the sky than usual) cannot cover the disk of the sun, it will produce a ring solar eclipse. A ring of sunlight is visible around the moon for several minutes.

2023-10-08 05:07:00
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