For thousands of people in Chile yesterday, the Moon passed directly between Earth and the Sun, casting a day-blotting shadow just prior to the real dusk. And of course, there are pictures.
In the image below, you can see the lines of the solar corona, its hot outer atmosphere.
The Moon’s shadow reached the Chilean coast by mid-afternoon, culminating in a total eclipse in which the Sun was completely blocked out at around 4:40PM Chilean time. You can watch video streams of the eclipse here and here.
Viewers were able to see eclipse phenomena such as Baily’s beads, in which the rough surface of the Moon allows “beads” of sunlight through, just at the start and finish of totality:
Baily’s beads effect during the #TotalSolarEclipse at the @GMTelescope, Las Campanas, Chile, caused by sunlight passing between mountains on the limb of the moon. pic.twitter.com/yF6gCb1b9E
— James Fanson (@jfanson) July 3, 2019
Eduard Masana @ICC_UB @IEEC_space send us from Chile an image of the amazing Baily’s beads. More info https://t.co/7n2Cq9hjqE pic.twitter.com/uEzX3GhglW
— GaiaUB (@GaiaUB) July 3, 2019
And a blacked-out Sun isn’t the only wild thing to occur during eclipses — the Sun appears to set from 360 degrees, rather than on just one part of the sky. One camera was able to catch a blip of that false sunset just before the real sunset:
Oooo, hey, want to see something cool? The @LCOAstro HAT cam was at 99% partial eclipse. Watch the sudden dusk appear and disappear, only for the real sunset to then take place. Also, see the shadow of the moon pass over the distant mountains #TotalSolarEclipse #EclipseSolar2019 pic.twitter.com/yn50P3WHYI
— Thomas Connor (@Thomas_Connor) July 3, 2019
Many Chilean viewers were able to see this eclipse thanks to donations from the 2017 eclipse that crossed North America. The organisation Astronomers Without Borders collected tens of thousands of pairs of eclipse glasses two years ago and distributed them to schools and organisation in Peru, Chile and Argentina.
The Sun looked pretty amazing.
Check out this amazing photo of the total solar eclipse today, taken near the @LSST observatory on Cerro Pachón by our very own @EarthCam #NSFScience pic.twitter.com/nfFf9yAe7J
— LSST Astronomy (@LSST) July 2, 2019
Carnegie scientists and friends observing a magnificent total solar eclipse over our Las Campanas Observatory here in the Atacama Desert in Chile. A perfect day. pic.twitter.com/vgt1RtPAGZ
— Carnegie President (@CarnegiePres) July 3, 2019
Eclipse 2019 , Santiago Chile . #eclipse #chile @richardbezzaza pic.twitter.com/YrrN2MJ8Q0
— Richard Bezzaza (@RichardBezzaza) July 3, 2019
It looked especially cool from space:
Fantastic! This is yesterday’s solar eclipse as seen from lunar orbit by a small camera on a tiny 45 kg satellite. pic.twitter.com/pdDOmAH72a
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) July 3, 2019