“Thousands Flock to Exmouth, Australia to Witness Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse”

About 20,000 people arrived in Exmouth, an Australian city of 3,000, due to the minute of midday darkness, when the moon completely covered the sun on Thursday, the agencies wrote Reuters a AP. It was one of the few places in the world that witnessed this celestial event.

Tourists who came solely for the eclipse flooded the town several days in advance, camping in tents and RVs.

Experts announced in advance that Exmouth will be one of the places where the astronomical phenomenon, which after Australia could also be observed by people in parts of Indonesia and East Timor, will be best visible.

Astronomer Henry Throop from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was one of those who went to Australia. “Isn’t it incredible? It’s a fantasy. Absolutely unreal. It was so clear and sharp. The corona around the Sun was also visible,” he described his experiences.

“It only lasted a minute, but it felt longer… And then Jupiter and Mercury were visible. And to observe the two planets at the same time – even to see just Mercury itself – is also a great rarity,” he added.

The moment of total eclipse, when the Sun was completely “blocked”, lasted exactly 58 seconds, according to Reuters.

“I’m so moved it makes me want to cry. The color was changing and I could see the corona and solar flares,” Julie Copson, who traveled over 1,000 kilometers from the Australian city of Fremantle for the eclipse, told the AP. She also drew attention to the sudden drop in temperature during the eclipse, when it cooled by five degrees in a few seconds.

A hybrid or combined solar eclipse is quite rare, the last time it could be observed was in 2013 and the next one will come in 2031.

It occurs when the Moon is almost as large as the more distant Sun in the sky, so that when viewed from some places it completely covers it, and when viewed from other places, a ring of radiation remains around the Sun.