| | Hello, everyone! EarthSky News will be resting and celebrating during the year-end holiday. Between now and January 1, you'll find us in your inbox from time to time, but not every day. From all of us at EarthSky ... love and best wishes! | | |
Annular solar eclipse of December 26 | | 2019's only annular eclipse - the 3rd and final solar eclipse of this year - falls on December 26. It's visible along a narrow path in the world's Eastern Hemisphere. Like a total solar eclipse, an annular eclipse happens when the new moon moves directly in front of the sun. But, for this sort of eclipse to occur, the new moon has to be near apogee, the farthest point in its orbit around Earth. Such a moon is too small to cover the sun's disk completely. Instead, an annulus - or thin ring of the sun's surface - surrounds the new moon silhouette. Read more. | | |
| |
Get ready for the '20s! | | | Reprinted with permission from Jay Ryan at Classical Astronomy "… Anybody besides me notice that the past 2 decades have been nameless? I remember asking people in the late 90s, what will we call the next decade? The ’00s? How about the 2000s? But nobody ever called that decade anything at all. Same with the current decade now ending. The ’10s? The Teens? Nobody says either of those either. For my own part, I’m glad to be getting back to a decade that has a name and an identity." Read more. | | |
