Veteran space photographer Ben Cooper captured this spectacular aerial view of the 2013 total solar eclipse from an eclipse-chasing airplane during the rare hybrid solar eclipse of Nov. 3, 2013. The photo was taken from 43,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean aboard a 12-person Falcon 900B jet chartered from Bermuda.
A slice of eastern North America will undergo a weird and dramatic event early Sunday (Nov. 3) morning: a partial eclipse of the sun.
For most North American observers, the partial eclipse will coincide with sunrise. But within a very narrow corridor that extends for 8,345 miles (13,430 kilometers) across the planet, the disks of the sun and the moon will appear to exactly coincide, providing an example of the most unusual type of eclipse: a “hybrid” or “annular-total eclipse.”
During annular solar eclipse, the sun looks like a “ring of fire,” while the moon and sun line up perfectly during a total eclipse. Throughout a hybrid eclipse, however, the celestial sight transitions from annular to total. (by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist)
