A “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse is happening on Thursday, June 10, 2021. This one is very early in the morning, so you’ll want to get up early to see it.
What Time Is the Eclipse?
The moon is passing over the sun on the morning of June 10, creating a partial eclipse that looks like a “ring of fire” around the moon. An annular eclipse requires that the moon be in its first lunar phase and appearing smaller in the sky than typical, so it can’t fully block the sun, CBS News reported. Thus, this will be a partial eclipse and not a full solar eclipse, which is rarer.
You’ll need to look to the east to see the eclipse, which will occur at 6:53 a.m. Eastern, CBS News reported. In other time zones, this is 5:53 a.m. Central, 4:53 a.m. Mountain, and 3:53 a.m. Pacific. Of course, it won’t be visible everywhere. The eclipse will be completely visible in Greenland, parts of Canada, Siberia, and the Arctic Ocean, CBS News reported. Here in the U.S., it will be partially visible in some locations.
The eclipse will last for a total of about 100 minutes, EarthSky reported. The ring of fire stage itself will be visible for 3 minutes and 51 seconds at the longest.
NASA reported that to see the exact time that the eclipse may be visible in your area, you can click on the map here.
You can also use Time and Date’s website here to determine the exact time you’ll be able to see the eclipse in your location. You’ll find a countdown to the eclipse’s time in your location, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the time that the partial eclipse, maximum eclipse, and last view of the eclipse will be visible in your region. (This will work as long as you are not using a VPN to obscure your location.)
Keep in mind that even though this isn’t a total solar eclipse, you will still need special glasses to watch it.
Here Are the Eclipse Maps & Path for Tonight
NASA has provided a map of the June 10, 2021 eclipse’s path. You can watch this in a video below:
NASA writes about the video above:
A visualization of the Moon’s shadow during the June 10, 2021 annular solar eclipse showing the antumbra (black oval), penumbra (concentric shaded ovals), and path of annularity (red). Images of the Sun show its appearance in a number of locations, each oriented to the local horizon. This is an annular (‘ring’) eclipse — not to be confused with ‘annual.’ The central part of the shadow, where the silhouette of the Moon is completely surrounded by a ring of sunlight, is called the antumbra. The part of the shadow outside the antumbra, where observers see a partial eclipse, is the penumbra.
NASA also provided the following map below of the eclipse’s path. The times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), NASA noted.
You can see another map of where the June annular solar eclipse will be visible at Time and Date here. On this map, you can search for a specific location to see the visibility in your region.
Time and Date is also providing a 3D Path Globe map, which you can view here.