ONE DAY UNTIL THE SOLAR ECLIPSE: Tomorrow, April 20th, a rare hybrid solar eclipse will sweep across Australia and Indonesia. Eclipse chaser Mohamad Sol couldn't wait. One day early, he snapped this picture of the Moon from inside the path of totality:
"Just the day before the total solar eclipse, I observed this fabulous moonrise from Exmouth, Australia, where the eclipse will be total on April 20th," says Sol.
A hybrid eclipse is a mixture of two types: an annular eclipse and a total eclipse. The difference is the size of the Moon. During the annular phase, the Moon is slightly too small to cover the entire solar disk, resulting in a "ring of fire." During the total phase, the whole sun is covered, revealing the sun's ghostly corona.
Tomorrow's eclipse begins as an annular eclipse over the Indian Ocean, transitions into a total eclipse as it moves over western Australia, then becomes an annular eclipse again over the South Pacific. The last time such a hybrid eclipse occurred was Nov. 3, 2013.
Outside the narrow red path (shown above), the eclipse will be partial--neither annular nor total. The sun will still be very bright, but shaped like a crescent as the Moon takes a bite out of the solar disk. Observers in this broad region can look directly at the eclipsed sun using safe solar eclipse glasses.
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