The year’s first solar eclipse

By a Staff Reporter

ASTRONOMERS around the island yesterday saw this year’s first annular solar eclipse during the early hours of the morning.

Because weather conditions were good with no clouds, it was visible from all parts of the island between 5.35 and 6.45am, the Meteorological Services told the Sunday Mail. It was also visible in other parts of Europe, north Asia, Greenland, northern Canada, Alaska and Egypt.

Yesterday the moon’s position against the sun was too small for it to cover the entire sun’s disc and so the eclipse consisted of a ring, or ‘annulus’ of bright sunlight surrounding the moon at the maximum phase.

Astronomers at the Fakas Tutorial Institution in Nicosia used astronomical telescopes to project images of the eclipse on a white screen, since it is dangerous to look directly at an eclipse.

According to NASA the next total solar eclipse will take place on November 23, and will be visible in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and South America.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.