The Sun crosses Africa eclipsed by the Moon - The País.com (Spain)

Sunday thick clouds cover the Canary Islands, leaving sporadic rains have prevented solar eclipse enjoy the hybrid, which in the islands has reached 35% of partiality, and only sporadically been able to observe the celestial phenomenon. The researcher of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) Hector Socas Efe said there had been “a little bit of bad luck” with the weather, because a cloud mass has settled over the islands and even Izaña Observatory in Teide, which is 95% of clear days, today “he has had” one covered.

hybrid solar eclipse, ie that begins as annular eclipse (with a solar disk ring around the moon dark) and just as total eclipse, with the sun completely hidden from being seen in the equatorial Atlantic and Africa (from Gabon to Somalia), but the Internet, once again, provides access to this celestial event, the retransmission is occurring from Kenya, among other places. Until then shifted, among others, a group of experienced eclipse chasers of the Astrophysical Institute of the Canaries (IAC) to witness the phenomenon from the eastern shore of Lake Turkana.

Iberian Peninsula has been partial eclipse and started shortly after one in the afternoon to finish an hour later. From Canary has seen better (at 12.10 local time), with an occultation of the solar disk by the moon of 31%.

The show has begun to dawn on the American east coast, where early birds were able to witness the partial occultation of the solar disk in the morning reddish, very near the horizon. More than half the diameter of the Sun has been hidden by the shadow of the Moon from New York and Boston and by 47% from Washington and Miami.

total concealment of the star, which started in the Atlantic, has been visible from a narrow strip of African territory, starting with Gabon, where they have international teams of astronomers shifted to the phenomenon observed and, despite the high risk of adverse weather conditions (cloudy sky) there. Jay Pasachoff, chair of the working group of eclipses of the International Astronomical Union in Gabon to witness and study the event with a group of colleagues, students and tourists.