A shimmering ring of light flashed into view yesterday in parts of the eastern hemisphere as the moon drifted across the face of the sun in a rare eclipse on the longest day of the year.
The path of the eclipse spanned East and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Most locations saw only a partial eclipse, with just a handful witnessing the “ring of fire.”
Unlike in a total eclipse, the moon in an annular, or ring-like, eclipse is unable to completely cover the sun, leaving a thin halo of light at its maximum phase.
Photo: CNA
Such an eclipse happens when the moon is farther away in its elliptical orbit around the Earth, appearing smaller as a result.
Hundreds of skywatchers gathered in an open space in Chiayi City, one of the locations in Asia where the annular eclipse was visible.
“I’m more than 50 years old, so it’s great that I could see this,” said a retiree surnamed Chuang (莊), 56, who traveled to Chiayi from Taichung. “I’m beyond excited.”
In Chiayi, the eclipse started at 2:49pm and ended at 5:25pm, with the complete “ring of fire” taking place for less than a minute at 4:14pm, when 99 percent of the sun’s surface was blocked.
Many spectators elsewhere in Taiwan braced scorching temperatures to watch the rare annular solar eclipse by flocking to museums, parks and schools for guided solar eclipse watching or simply observed the event from street corners, using protective eye gear.
The momentum was especially high in Tainan and Kaohsiung, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Nantou, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying islands of Penghu and Kinmen, as people there could witness the entire process of the eclipse.
In Taipei, where only a partial solar eclipse was visible, about 10,000 people were estimated to have visited the Taipei Astronomical Museum, museum officials said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Internet users watched the eclipse streamed online by various government and academic outlets.
An annular solar eclipse covering such a large percentage of the sun will not be visible in Taiwan until June 28, 2215, the museum said.
In Chinese and Japanese lore, it is believed that a dog in the sky named Tiangou (天狗) eats the sun, causing the eclipse.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS