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From the deck of a sail ship off the slide of Australia , I witnessed a rare"hybrid - total " solar eclipse — the first of its kind in a decade .
The heavenly show was dazzle , with a prodigious corona discharge — or the Sunday ’s beam outer standard pressure — temporarily visible from behind the moon passing in front of it ; multiple prominences , ortowering loops of plasmaextending from the sunshine ; and a dramatic , range " diamond ring " that could be seen from Australia on Thursday morning ( April 20 ) , with a totality that was gone in 60 second gear .
A “diamond ring” heralded the beginning of totality.
That morning , myself and 2,000 fellow eclipse - chasers — the vast majority of whom were Australians about to witness their firstsolar occultation — woke up under altogether clear skies and in the still waters of the Exmouth Gulf , Western Australia , aboard the Pacific Explorer , operated by P&O Cruises Australia .
As far as solar eclipses go , a intercrossed solar occultation is a momentous one to see . intercrossed solar eclipses are a combining of atotal solar occultation , when the moon completely blocks the Lord’s Day ’s illumination from strain Earth , stimulate temporary darkness known as total , and an ring-shaped solar occultation , when an verboten halo of the sun ’s light is still seeable around the Sun Myung Moon .
However , it ’s impossible to see both from the same spot ; the " intercrossed " nature of this effect is a description of the entire path of the eclipse . In the narrow path of totality , where I was wait on the sail ship , eclipse - chasers could look forward to the prospect of an extended display ofBaily ’s beads — smart pinpricks of light that peek out around the edge of the moon just before and after totality .
A view of the solar corona was accompanied by prominences — explosions on the surface of the sun.
After a four - day journey of 850 marine stat mi ( 1,575 kilometer ) from Fremantle near Perth through largely clear skies , expectation were high . What unfolded was a integrality more spectacular than anyone had foretell .
" First contact " of the new synodic month with the sunlight occurred at 10:04 a.m. AWST ( 10:04 p.m. EDT ) , when the new moon appear to take a bite from the top of the sun , creating a " smiley face " crescent .
At 11:31 a.m. AWST ( 11:31 p.m. EDT ) — the measured minute of totality — come on , the temperature noticeably dropped and the light took on a shrill , silvery caliber only noticeable during a deep , partial solar occultation .
A crescent sun moments before totality.
Some people reclined on sunbeds to look on the spectacle , wearing specialized eclipse chicken feed to protect their eyes from the sun ; others readied telescopes and camera . As the moonshadow draw near at around 14,000 mph ( 22,500 km / h ) , the last place of sunlight teem through dozens of lunar valleys .
" Baily ’s beadwork ! " come the shout , followed by a " do n’t look yet ! " The about - perfect friction match between synodic month and sun do a magnificent glisten around the lunar tree branch as the solar corona was soon revealed . It was a vast spread of shadowy , white spike , large than any ensure during an eclipse for a decade or more ; the lightshow was likely related to the sun ’s nearing a period of peak activeness , hump as the solar level best , which it ’s predicted to pass next twelvemonth .
As a blue twilight swallowed up the Exmouth Gulf , several pinkish bulge — explosion on the surface of the sun — were also revealed . A yellowy incandescence became visible around the horizon , just outside the moon ’s shadow .
A woman gazes upward with special solar eclipse glasses.(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
As quickly as it began , this short totality drew to an conclusion . A glitter of beadwork appeared once again on the other side of the moon as it made its way across the sun , but what watch was extra special .
alternatively of quickly coalescing into a individual bead of light , the bead seemed to merge erratically , dance indecisively and drift deliciously along the limb before forming a " diamond ring " that seemed to last as farseeing as 5 seconds .
entirety was over — gone in just 60 second gear — and my fellow passengers erupted into an excited babble to swap impressions of the experience .
About 2,000 eclipse-chasers observed the partial phases through various kinds of solar eclipse viewers.(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
" There have n’t been prominences like that since 1991 ! " said Michael Zeiler fromGreatAmericanEclipse.comat his eleventh total solar eclipse . That exhibit of solar explosions is one of the vantage of experiencing a entire solar eclipse while the sunshine is so active .
— Get ready , the next with child North American total solar eclipse is 2 years from today
— The only full solar eclipse of 2020 may be one few get a chance to see
Onlookers use solar eclipse viewers to safely see the show before totality.(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
— Dazzling photos of the solar eclipse from Antarctica
Next year , when the sun reaches solar maximum , a total solar eclipse will be visible in Mexico , the U.S. and Canada on April 8 , 2024 — and that will be one not to miss . That upcoming entirety will last more than 4 minutes .
The Pacific Explorer passenger who witnessed Thursday ’s occultation have another one to wait forward to — in about eight years meter . The next intercrossed total solar eclipse will be on Nov. 14 , 2031 and will be visible from the Pacific Ocean .
Everen T. Brown, of 360° World Atlas, talks aboard the Pacific Explorer.(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Totality as seen from the Pacific Explorer lasted just 60 seconds.
