Photographer and amateur astronomer Elias Chasiotis was
observing the annular solar eclipse on December 26 when he snapped amazing
images of dawn resembling red devil horns. Chasiotis, knowing that the eclipse
would be visible from Qatar at daybreak, went from Athens to the coastal city
of Al Wakrah to photograph the "ring of fire" emerging from the sea.
“The Moon is the black circle at the top of the
atmospherically-reddened Sun—but so is the dark peak just below it,” explains NASA's Astronomy Picture
of the Day “This is because the Earth's atmosphere had an inversion layer of
abnormally warm air along the way, which worked like a massive lens and
generated a second image.”
Chasiotis' placement was not by chance. He
purposefully chose Al Wakrah because he knew the eclipse would begin at dawn
and hoped that his position above the water would produce a mirage. When it
occurs during regular dawn, this atmospheric optical phenomenon is known as the
Etruscan Vase effect. The optical illusion was called for the shape it creates
by great science fiction writer Jules Verne.
While Chasiotis was unhappy not to be able to view
the entire annular solar eclipse—in which the moon covers the sun leaving just
a ring of fire visible—he is more than delighted with what he caught that day.
“During the eclipse, the emotion was out of this world,” he adds “The crescent
sun rose with a rich crimson hue that reminded me of burning coal. Initially,
two horns could be seen emerging from the sea, which eventually acquired the
shape of a crescent. The obvious distortions made it appear much lovelier! An
annular eclipse, sometimes "the ring of fire," followed because the
moon was not close enough to the Earth to completely block out the sun.
Unfortunately, clouds obscured my view, causing me to miss the annular phase.
When the eclipsed sun emerged through the clouds, it was no longer a crescent.
Despite missing the main event, I was so pleased by the dawn that I didn't
care.”
On June 21, 2020, Chasiotis will have another chance
to see an annular solar eclipse, which should be visible across areas of
Africa, Pakistan, northern India, and China.
An amazing illusion happened during the partial annular solar eclipse in December 2019.
Elias Chasiotis, an amateur astronomer, was there to
photograph it when the illusion dissipated and the sun rose as a partly veiled
crescent.
Elias
Chasiotis: Facebook
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