Parts of Australia went dark for almost a minute on Thursday as the sun was blocked from the moon at the country’s first solar eclipse in 2023.
The rare, hybrid solar eclipse was only visible as a whole from a few cities in Southeast Asia and Western Australia, but was watched via live streams by tens of thousands of people around the world (including some ScienceAlert staff in Australia, who glimpsed the partial eclipse through a veil of drift clouds in Melbourne and Sydney ).
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun, its alignment and size so perfect that it casts an eerie darkness on the landscape below. For a few brief moments, only a glimpse of our parent star can be seen white corona peek shyly around the moon disk.
During an annular solar eclipse, on the other hand, the moon’s relative size to the sun allows a blazing ring of light to surround the darkness.
In this case, the event was a rare event hybrid total annular eclipsein which the moon’s shadow touched down on part of the eclipse path and then lifted off again as the eclipse progressed from annular to total and back to annular again.
Photos from this rare event are now starting to flood social media and we can’t stop staring at them.
Enjoy some of the images and footage of the eclipse and take them as a timely reminder that we are all turning on a tiny cog in a vast solar system.
Total from the Gulf of Exmouth #solar eclipse2023 pic.twitter.com/VBoloAPuI4
— Chris Lewis (@a_film_maker) April 20, 2023
Here is the moment of totality captured by the Perth Observatory and timeanddate.com for NASA’s live stream.
And some amazing moments captured by other observers.
#solar eclipse2023 #Perth pic.twitter.com/ZqoHf93oo8
— Liam Murphy (@_Liam_Murphy) April 20, 2023
Pretty #solar eclipse2023 pic.twitter.com/BwirUDWHGr
— Scott (@baxlex) April 20, 2023
We had a partial solar eclipse in South West Western Australia today. Here are my not great photos of it… wrong place, wrong gear, did what I could with what I have.#solar eclipse2023 pic.twitter.com/FUplGxKlHn
— Paul Pichugin (@paulmp) April 20, 2023
Town Beach cheers for totality 🌚🌞 #Eclipse2023 @9NewsPerth pic.twitter.com/VIiEmJbceN
— Tracy Vo (@Tracy_Vo) April 20, 2023
Unreal. #Darkness pic.twitter.com/4fiXcWDCPW
– Tom Fee (@thomfee) April 20, 2023
The video below shows a quick and easy way to safely observe a solar eclipse – with a pinhole camera.
From what I learned in science class… to save eyes and justify my nerdyness🤓#solar eclipse2023 pic.twitter.com/pTMst338im
— Charles Jenkinson (@charlesj_au) April 20, 2023
Total Solar Eclipse here in Western Australia (my area only has about 70% but super cool!) pic.twitter.com/kApCGLhtW9
— Claire G. | Somewhere across the sea 🏴☠️ 🏳️🌈 (@ClaireGregoryAU) April 20, 2023
And just for a change of perspective, here’s a more lunar perspective view – with an Australian weather satellite showing the darkness spreading across Australia’s western expanses.
Looking back the other way… #Himawari #solar eclipse2023 pic.twitter.com/bBdPc0icOw
— Nate Byrne (@SciNate) April 20, 2023
Have fun looking at the sky!
