Solar eclipse dazzles eastern US

By Andy Roesgen

ILLINOIS, US (AA) - Early star-gazers took full advantage in the eastern US on Thursday morning to see a new moon solar eclipse.

The eclipse occurred at 5:53 a.m. and although other parts of the world saw a full eclipse, US watchers only saw the moon partially eclipse the sun.

Still, for minutes building up to the eclipse and afterward, the eastern US was treated to an "annular" or "ring of fire" eclipse.

That happens when the moon blocks the view of the sun, but, because the moon happens to be at one of its farthest points from Earth at the moment, it cannot block the sun entirely. That leaves a red hot-looking "ring" around the moon, if only for a short time.

And for US viewers, it looked as if the moon had taken a bite out of the sun.

In New York, many residents had their views blocked by tall buildings, forcing city-dwellers to the tops of buildings to get the best views.

The sky lit up in fiery orange as the moon blocked about three-quarters of the sun, making the sun look like the moon -- a crescent sliver.

In Chicago, the solution to view the eclipse was to go down, rather than up. The shores of Lake Michigan provided a perfect spot to watch an oddly crescent sun rise above the lake.

The eclipse was the first of 2021 but the next one will not be so easily visible.

One would be lucky to see it if in Antarctica at 2:44 a.m. local time on Dec. 4.

The full eclipse was seen most visibly in western Russia and east-central Canada.