What is it about solar eclipses that gets people so hyped up? It's happened before and we all know what to expect and it lasts a matter of minutes but it's one of those things that when you witness it for real makes your skin go all prickly and everything seems a little unreal in those moments of day-time darkness. It's quite a strange sensation.
Last Sunday, skywatchers in Asia, the Pacific and the western U.S. were treated to a rare annular solar eclipse (hope those of you who saw it were all wearing your protective eye wear). Unlike a total eclipse (when the moon passes in front of the sun directly blocking the entire thing) an annular eclipse leaves what looks like a ring of fire around the moon as it doesn't cover the whole sun). It was the first annular eclipse visible in the U.S. in nearly 18 years, according to NASA, and National Geographic reports that it will be more than 10 years before another annular eclipse is visible from the mainland U.S.
If, like me, you missed out on seeing it, here are some cool videos and photos to give you a taster of the momentous occasion. People got all snap happy and creative and photographed the eclipse projected through binoculars, glasses of water and shadows making for some pretty cool photographs.
And, according to one source, another rare solar event is going to take place in a few weeks in June known as "the transit of Venus" when the planet will obscure the sun, another one of those rare events that won't happen again for another 105 years (how do they predict this stuff).
If you're curious whether you're in the right place of the world to see it, here's a map (thank you Wikipedia):
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the first one gets on your nerve as cameraman can't stand still!!!