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Date Published: 01/12/2021
ARCHIVED - Only total solar eclipse of 2021 to occur on December 4
There have been three other eclipses, some of which were visible in Spain, already this year
The only solar eclipse of 2021 is set to occur on December 4 as the year comes to a close, but many star gazers will be left disappointed as the impressive spectacle won’t actually be visible from Spain or Europe.
So far this year there have been three other similar celestial events: a total lunar eclipse on May 26, an annular solar eclipse on June 10 and a partial lunar eclipse on November 19.
A solar eclipse occurs when the light of the Sun is totally or partially hidden when the Moon passes between it and an observer, and can be placed in one of three categories: total, annular and partial.
Total refers to the fact that the observer sees the Moon completely cover the disk of the Sun. It will be partial when the Moon covers only a part of the Sun. Finally, the annular eclipse occurs when the observer sees that the disk of the Moon does not manage to cover the disk of the Sun, even if their centres are well aligned.
“This is because the Moon is farther from Earth that day than in the case of a total eclipse, so that its disk looks smaller than that of the Sun. In this case a bright ring is observed surrounding the lunar disk", the National Geographic Institute (IGN) explained.
Image: Archive
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