Rare hybrid solar eclipse April 20: Vietnam will see a third face

During the upcoming special solar eclipse on April 20, you can hear many people from different countries and regions taking pictures and reporting on the eclipse with two different shapes.

It could be a total solar eclipse in which the Sun is “eaten” by the Moon, creating a completely blackened parent star surrounded by a halo of ghosts.

But some other places will report annular eclipses, in which the black Sun is surrounded by a bright ring.

The culprit of this phenomenon is the Earth itself.

The curvature of the Earth’s surface will make the eclipse likely to be seen with different faces each time, depending on which part of the Moon’s shadow is falling on the Earth – Photo: DATE AND TIME

According to Date and Time , this happens when the path of the eclipse causes people in the central band (the area where the total eclipse can be observed) to look towards the Sun – Moon with different distances, due to curvature of the Earth’s surface.

In other words, this only happens when the path of the eclipse spans many latitudes.

The central band of this eclipse extends from a position in the sea near the middle of the diagonal connecting Africa’s Cape of Hope with the Antarctic coast below Australia, up to the Pacific islands lying to the east. Northern Indonesia, which spans many latitudes.

The path of the solar eclipse on April 20 – Photo: DATE AND TIME

Thus, ships sailing near the junction of the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean may have a very rare chance of seeing a total solar eclipse with the Sun completely black.

The eclipse will quickly turn annular as it moves toward Australia, making it visible to people in parts of Australia, East Timor and Indonesia.

Other countries and regions, including Vietnam, unfortunately will not see the total and annular solar eclipse because it is not in the central band.

A part of our country is still located in an area where the eclipse can be seen at a large angle, which means a partial eclipse, a “third face” of a hybrid eclipse, in which the Sun is only eclipsed. The Moon “eats” a small batch.

The eclipse this time is quite faint when viewed from Vietnam because we are located in the lowest cover band, with only half of the central and southern regions visible.