Up Close With the Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse

From Asia to the coast of California, Sunday’s lunar eclipse helped turn millions of eyes skyward.

The annular eclipse, more poetically named the “ring of fire” by those who viewed it, almost, but not quite, blocked the totality of the sun. The eclipse was visible in Tokyo – where numerous people took pictures with cameraphones and other devices – before sweeping west and intersecting the West Coast a little after 6 p.m on Sunday. That meant that scores of people could watch the eclipse over dinner, with the full “ring of fire” effect viewable in a path connecting Chico, Calif. through Reno, Nev., and southwest from there.

Although the eclipse was only truly “viewable” with welder’s glasses (or else a pinhole punched into a cardboard) that didn’t stop the normally soft afternoon light from being changed into something harsher as the moon blocked the sun.

Read full story by Mark Hachman, click here.