Rare hybrid solar eclipse to appear this Sunday morning!

Mrs. Hill will be celebrating her birthday this Sunday with a rare solar eclipse!

A rare “hybrid” solar eclipse will take place on Sunday morning starting at sunrise and will be visible as a partial eclipse in Eastern Canada. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth and casts its shadow on the Earth.

A hybrid eclipse is an unusual eclipse that morphs between a total eclipse — in which the moon completely covers the sun — and an annular eclipse, in which a brilliant halo of sunlight is still visible around the moon. The moon’s apparent change in size is caused by the fact that its orbit around the Earth is elliptical, and it appears bigger when it is closer to the Earth.

‘Even more unique’

Typically, a hybrid eclipse starts and ends as an annular eclipse but appears as a total eclipse in the middle. However, Sunday’s eclipse is “even more unique,” reports NASA, because it starts as an annular eclipse and ends as a total eclipse.

eclipe

According to predictions by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada:

  • In Toronto, the eclipse will peak at 6:58 a.m. and end at 7:11 a.m.
  • In Ottawa, it will peak at 6:47 a.m. and end at 7:12 a.m.
  • In Montreal, it will peak at 6:35 a.m. and end at 7:12 a.m.
  • In Halifax, it will peak at 7:16 a.m. and end at 8:15 a.m.
  • In St. John’s, it will start at 7:02 a.m., peak at 7:42 a.m. and end at 8:49 a.m.