Partial Solar Eclipse, December 2020
Photos from Administrator Fiona Kilpatrick
To add to the pre-Christmas festivities, on Monday 14th December 2020, people on Tristan were able to witness a rare eclipse of the sun. The path of the eclipse was such that although it was total over parts of South America, only a partial eclipse was visible at Tristan. Even so, it reached a magnitude of 0.9158, meaning that the Moon covered 89.76% of the Sun.
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| The partial solar eclipse as seen at the settlement on Tristan da Cunha. | |
The sky at Tristan is often cloudy, so people were careful not to get too excited. Even so, social worker Sam Lowe had ordered special sunglasses for the children just in case. As it turned out, clouds did get in the way, but as Fiona Kilpatrick's pictures show, it was still a great spectacle.
An albatross managed to make an appearance too!
The eclipse started at 4:32 pm, reached its maximum at 5:40 pm, and finished at 6:40 pm, making the total duration 2 hours, 8 minutes.