A total solar eclipse to occur this Saturday, December 4

After the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440 on November 19, this time it is the turn of the sun to disappear from the moon. The second solar eclipse since the beginning of the year – the first, partial, occurring on June 10, 2021 – will be total this time, but unfortunately will not be visible in our latitudes.

This type of event can happen only during the new moon, as will happen on December 4, 2021. Overall, the total eclipse lasting 4:08 will be visible only over a small part of Earth located around Antarctica. In fact, the observation should be just under the shadow of the Moon projected by the Sun. A dedicated site allows you to watch the development of this part, from the beginning of the eclipse at 5:29 UTC to its end at 9:37 UTC. It will be visible live on NASA’s live site from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. French time, allowing total phase observation.

solar eclipse, or when the sun is obscured by the moon

The occurrence of an eclipse corresponds to an alignment between the Earth, the Moon and the Sun. When they are imperfectly aligned, a partial eclipse occurs: only part of the Sun is eclipsed. But in the case of perfect alignment, there are two types of eclipses: annular and total.

© Mehdi Benezer for Sciences at Avenira

If the Moon is close enough to Earth, its diameter and the diameter of the Sun as seen from Earth reach the same value, a phenomenon possible because the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but also 400 times closer!

But if, on the contrary, the Moon is in a phase where it is located far enough away from Earth, its trajectory is not exactly circular but elliptical, then its apparent diameter would be slightly less than that of the Sun: it would therefore be an annular eclipse..

C’That total eclipse will be visible in Antarctica

It is a matter of misfortune for this eclipse, because even when it is completely complete, it will be visible only from Antarctica. More precisely, the ideal situation would be in a particularly inhospitable place, namely the Weddell Sea! In the absence of humans, it would therefore be penguins who would have leisure to watch the Sun until it was completely eclipsed. a show that should go on overall ,4 hours 08.2 minutes” with a period ofFull phase of 1 hour 06.5 minutes.”, according to a newsletter from the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculus. Only a few lucky ones are located”in southern Africa, over a small part of south-eastern Australia and extreme south of Tierra del Fuego.You can see a partial eclipse.

But be patient, there are more eclipses to come in the coming months! The next, partial solar eclipse, will occur on April 30, 2022, and will be primarily visible from the region stretching from South America to Antarctica. In our latitudes, we will have to wait until May 15, 2022, to see a total eclipse of the Moon this time.

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