Annular "Ring of Fire" Eclipse pictures

I've been meaning to post these pictures I took of the Annular Eclipse back on 20 May.

An annular eclipse is one where the Moon is further out from Earth on it's elliptical orbit, so its disc doesn't completely block out the Sun, leaving a ring exposed.

A key difference is that, because some of the Sun is still exposed, a solar filter is required throughout to view it. And that of course makes the "blood moon" view of a typical full eclipse impossible.

I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, and this eclipse was a purely Northern Hemisphere event.

So I watched it via the live broadcast on www.slooh.com - a public online telescope subscription service.

Not quite the same as seeing it with one's own eyes, but a pretty good substitute.

And a lot cheaper than flying around the world to see it!

Interesting how the Sun colour changes from orange to red as the ring closes...

In some ways, more beautiful than a full solar eclipse, don't you think?