The 10 Must-See Skywatching Events to Look for in 2020
June 21: Annular eclipse of the sun The first of two solar eclipses in 2020 will be visible from parts of Africa, Arabia, Pakistan, northern India, southern China, Taiwan, the Philippine Sea and Pacific Ocean. North America will not see any part of it. Although the new moon will pass directly across the face of the sun, it will not cover it entirely because the moon will farther than average from the Earth and the moon's resultant apparent size will be 0.6% smaller than that of the sun. As a consequence, an exceedingly thin ring of sunlight will shine around the dark silhouette of the moon, resulting in an "annular" eclipse , derived from the Latin annulus, meaning "ring shaped." A good analogy would be to place a penny on top of a nickel, the penny represents the moon and the nickel represents the sun. Over northern India, the width of the path of the annular eclipse measures just 13 miles (21 km) wide, and the ring of sunligh...