Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Abbasali Salehabadi (Translation)

Abstract

On May 10, 1994, the occurrence of a partial or ring eclipse of the sun in North America for more than six minutes fascinated millions of people in these areas. Unlike a general eclipse, a ring eclipse occurs when the moon is at the place on its orbit around the Earth farthest from that planet. In this situation, the diameter of the moon appears slightly smaller than the Sun’s diameter. 
Thus, the fully-dark image of the moon is visible in the very thin halo of the Sun from above a place in the shadow of the Moon. Observers look at this rare event through special solar filters to see how the Moon's image is embedded in the shining view of the Sun. The occurrence of this phenomenon can be thought of as creating a white hot cavity in the heart of the blue sky. The dark space behind the hot solar ring makes the imagination more powerful. This phenomenon is among the second ring eclipse that has been visible in North America over the last two half-years. But unlike the January 1992 event, which was only visible from southern California, the arctic route on May 10th was eastward along the northwest of Mexico, and so covered most of the United States and the easternmost part of Canada, and was visible in these areas. This event ended at the sunset in the Morocco region.