Solar Eclipse Photos: Easter Island, Other Sites Darken

Easter Island Eclipse Watcher

Photograph by Eliseo Fernandez, Reuters

One of Easter Island's famous stone statues, or moai, seems to turn its back on the total solar eclipse Sunday, while a woman uses a special filter for safe eclipse viewing. (Watch video: "Solar Eclipse to Darken Easter Island.")

Looking directly at the sun—even during an eclipse—can permanently damage human eyes. Eclipse experts recommend wearing sun-safe glasses and watching the spectacle only for short periods.

Published July 12, 2010

Eclipse Halo

Photograph by Martin Bernetti, AFP/Getty Images

During Sunday's total solar eclipse, the moon covered the sun over Easter Island, so that only the faint, white ring of the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona, was visible.

Eclipse expert and National Geographic grantee Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, was on Easter Island to witness his 51st solar eclipse. According to Pasachoff, eclipses offer scientists unique opportunities to study the corona, parts of which are invisible even to sun-watching satellites.

"On the days of eclipses—and only on those days—can we supply high-quality images of the inner and middle corona that fill in the gaps in spacecraft coverage," Pasachoff told National Geographic News last week. "We can learn about the sun's magnetic field and the relation of the sun and the Earth by studying eclipses."

(The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Published July 12, 2010

Eclipse "Frown"

Photograph by Martin Bernetti, AFP/Getty Images

The sun seems to create a frown in the sky over Easter Island as just a small crescent of light remains visible during Sunday's total solar eclipse.

Thousands of people gathered on Easter Island—a UN World Heritage site—to watch the eclipse, billed as one of the most remote that will happen this century.

"The most noteworthy aspect of this eclipse is how little land it crosses and the sparse population areas in the path," eclipse chaser and astronomer Alan Dyer, of the Telus World of Science-Calgary in Alberta, told National Geographic News last week.

Published July 12, 2010

Eclipse Hovers Over Patagonia

Photograph courtesy Daniel Fischer

The eclipsed sun seems to hover over the horizon on Sunday, barely lighting the high, snowy plains of Patagonia in southern Argentina.

According to Telus World of Science's Dyer, the moments before and after totality can be just as thrilling as the solar eclipse itself.

"The twilight horizon colors, weird sharp shadows, and other fleeting phenomena [surrounding the eclipse] are so immersive and overwhelming," Dyer told National Geographic News last week.

Published July 12, 2010

The Usual Suspects

Photograph by Martin Bernetti, AFP/Getty Images

French astrophotographer Stephane Guisard sets up his equipment Saturday near a "lineup" of moai on Easter Island. Guisard was among a fleet of photographers that traveled to various points in the Pacific Basin to capture the total solar eclipse as part of the international photography project The World at Night (TWAN).

Eclipse chasers on Easter Island were blanketed by cloudy skies over the weekend, raising fears that the eclipse would happen behind a veil of water vapor. But winds picked up on Sunday morning, blowing away the clouds and revealing clear blue skies just in time for the sky show.

At first sight of the moon's shadow creeping across the sun, the crowd of astronomers and enthusiasts on the island burst into applause, according to the AFP news service.

Published July 12, 2010

Eclipse Over Paradise

Photograph by Stephane Guisard, TWAN

Easter Island plunges into darkness on Sunday during the total solar eclipse in a picture by TWAN photographer Stephane Guisard.

"It was like being in the stadium at night with artificial light. It was like being in a darkroom with a ten-watt bulb," local Easter Island official Francisco Haoa told reporters, according to AFP.

Solar eclipses can happen up to five times a year, although each year is different due to variations in the positions of Earth, the moon, and the sun over time. For example, there won't be another total solar eclipse until November 2012.

Published July 12, 2010