                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2024 October 11

                       Ring of Fire over Easter Island
       Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
                             Observatory, TWAN)

   Explanation: The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On
   October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular
   eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly
   over ocean, making its only major landfall near the southern tip of
   South America, and then ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic
   total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire. Also
   tracking across islands in the southern Pacific, the Moon's antumbral
   shadow grazed Easter Island allowing denizens to follow all phases of
   the annular eclipse. Framed by palm tree leaves this clear island view
   is a stack of two images, one taken with and one taken without a solar
   filter near the moment of the maximum annular phase. The New Moon's
   silhouette appears just off center, though still engulfed by the bright
   disk of the active Sun.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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