Great South American Eclipse

On July 2, 2019, a spectacular total eclipse of the Sun will grace the late afternoon skies across South America. along a narrow path from Chile to Argentina turning daytime into night for a precious couple of minutes. Meanwhile a partial eclipse of the Sun will also be visible from a much wider region, across the Pacific basin and most of the South American continent in countries like Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay.

The Sun is 400 times greater in diameter than the Moon and 400 times as far from Earth as the Moon. This makes the Moon and Sun appear approximately the same size in the sky. As a result the Moon can completely cover the face of the Sun if they are aligned.

A solar eclipse occurs during the New Moon phase, when the Moon is directly aligned between the Sun and Earth. As a result, our view of the Sun is hidden by the Moon, and only the outer layers of the Sun’s atmosphere remain visible during totality- when the entire disk of the Moon is covering the Sun. A total eclipse can last several minutes and occur somewhere on Earth twice a year.

During a solar eclipse the shadow of the Moon has an inner cone, the umbra where the shadow is total, and an outer cone, the penumbra, which is lighter. So as the eclipse unfolds, for those skywatchers that are in the umbra shadow- they get to see the full total eclipse. Anyone in the penumbra shadow will see a partial solar eclipse.

Watch the Eclipse LIVE from Chile!

Join Astronomers Without Borders online here, on our website, on July 2 at 4:00 pm EDT to watch the Total Solar Eclipse Live from Chile, via our partners at the Exploratorium. 

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