MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands, “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse begins peaking at 17:30

Different phases of a solar eclipse

This Wednesday afternoon a spectacular “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse will be visible for some parts of South America. While southern Chile and Argentina, Patagonia, will see a ring of the Sun as the Moon passes in front of it, those in the Falklands Islands will see a large solar eclipse.

What is an annular solar eclipse? A report from BBC says that a solar eclipses happen when the Moon casts a shadow on Earth and in a total eclipse, the whole disc of the Sun is blocked.

An annular solar eclipse differs because some of the Sun will still be visible as a spectacular ring with the centre blocked out by the Moon.

The reason for this ring - known as the “ring of fire” - is because the Moon happens to be at its furthest point from Earth, called the apogee, and therefore appears slightly smaller in the sky.

This is the opposite to when the Moon is at its closest - the perigee - on its elliptical orbit around Earth, which gives us the viewings of the larger Supermoon.

Wednesday's eclipse and “ring of fire” will first been seen on the remote Easter Island in the Pacific at 14:08 local time (20:08 BST).

It will then be seen on the south-west coast of mainland Chile at 17.20 local time (20:20 BST) before moving east into Argentina shortly after.

Those in the Falkland Islands will experience a partial solar eclipse of around 80-85%. It will start at 16:12 locally (20:12 BST) in the Falklands, peaking at 17:30 (20:30 BST), before ending at 18:42 (22:42 BST). And the most important thing is to never looking directly at the Sun.

However the weather in southern parts of Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands is not looking the most ideal. There is likely to be quite a lot of cloud in southern Chile in particular as a weather system brings in rain, sleet and some snow to higher ground.

To the eastern side of the southern Andes however, skies will be a little clearer for those in Argentina. And in the Falkland Islands, there will be some breaks in what will be mostly overcast skies.