The 1st solar eclipse of 2022 is stunning

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring Earth’s view of the Sun, totally or partially. Such an alignment coincides with a new moon, indicating the Moon is closest to the plane of the Earth’s orbit. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is obscured.

An eclipse is a natural phenomenon. In some ancient and modern cultures, solar eclipses were attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as bad omens. Astronomers’ predictions of eclipses began in China as early as the 4th century BC; eclipses hundreds of years into the future may now be predicted with high accuracy. Looking directly at the Sun can lead to permanent eye damage, so special eye protection or indirect viewing techniques are used when viewing a solar eclipse. Only the total phase of a total solar eclipse is safe to view without protection. Enthusiasts known as eclipse chasers or umbraphiles travel to remote locations to see solar eclipses.

The first solar eclipse of this year  witnessed in some parts of the world on Saturday, April 30, 2022. A solar eclipse is a phenomenon in which the moon passes between the sun and the earth, casting a dark shadow on the earth that can completely or partially block sunlight in some areas. Professional observatories in Earth and space caught a spectacular eclipse of the sun in between their usual duties checking out solar weather. The partial solar eclipse of April 30 was visible in a narrow band across parts of Antarctica, the southern tip of South America and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and apparently, also in space.

The first partial solar eclipse of 2022 started at 12.15 am on May 1, 2022, according to Pakistan Standard Time (IST). The visibility of the Solar Eclipse can be observed in the locations that include parts of the southern hemisphere and those residing in South America, Chile, Uruguay, southwestern Bolivia, Peru, and specific areas of southwestern Brazil and Argentina. NASA has also confirmed the visualization over the South Pacific and parts of Antarctica.

Types Of Eclipse

There are four types of solar eclipses:

• A total eclipse occurs when the dark silhouette of the Moon completely obscures the intensely bright light of the Sun, allowing the much fainter solar corona to be visible. During any one eclipse, totality occurs at best only in a narrow track on the surface of Earth. This narrow track is called the path of totality.
• An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line with the Earth, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon.
• A hybrid eclipse (also called annular/total eclipse) shifts between a total and annular eclipse. At certain points on the surface of Earth, it appears as a total eclipse, whereas at other points it appears as annular. Hybrid eclipses are comparatively rare.
• A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line with the Earth and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can be seen only as a partial eclipse, because the umbra passes above the Earth’s polar regions and never intersects the Earth’s surface. Partial eclipses are virtually unnoticeable in terms of the Sun’s brightness, as it takes well over 90% coverage to notice any darkening at all. Even at 99%, it would be no darker than civil twilight.

Myths about solar eclipse

Solar eclipses have caused fear, inspired curiosity, and have been associated with myths, legends, and superstitions throughout history. Even today, an eclipse of the Sun is considered a bad omen in many cultures. Ancient cultures tried to understand why the Sun temporarily vanished from the sky, so they came up with various reasons for what caused a solar eclipse. In many cultures, the legends surrounding solar eclipses involve mythical figures eating or stealing the Sun. Others interpreted the event as a sign of angry or quarreling gods.

For many people in ancient times, a total solar eclipse generated fear. They thought the world would come to an end or a great evil would follow.  Myths often involved a beast trying to destroy the Sun with the fate of Earth hanging in the balance—or, a Sun-god becoming angry, sad, or sick.

• Native people in Colombia shouted to the heavens, promising to work hard and mend their ways. Some worked their gardens and other projects especially hard during the eclipse to prove it.
• In Norse culture, an evil enchanter, Loki, was put into chains by the gods. Loki got revenge by creating wolflike giants, one of which swallowed the Sun—thereby causing an eclipse. (Another of the giant wolves chased the Moon, trying to eat it.)
• Fear led Chippewa people to shoot flaming arrows into the sky to try to rekindle the Sun. Tribes in Peru did the same for a different reason; they hoped to scare off a beast that was attacking the Sun.

Eclipses did not incite fear in at least one group: Bohemia’s miners. They believed that the event portended good luck in finding gold. Some North American Indian tribes believed that an eclipse was simply nature’s way of “checking in” with the sky, perhaps a sort of cleaning house. The Sun and the Moon temporarily leave their places in the sky to see if things are going all right on our planet Earth.