Annular Eclipse 2012 Xiamen, China

The solar eclipse expedition of the Astronomical League of the Philippines was a huge success. After two days of rain we had good sky conditions on eclipse day. A single cloud was on the sky and covered the sun for a few minutes before 2nd contact. Thanks to the cloud we were taking images and videos without filter, giving us the rare chance to capture prominences and the chromosphere. It was as exciting as a total eclipse.

[@ems-dollartmedia1781]

nice footage- with prominences!!!!!COOL!

[@Pyromil0]

nice capture!!!

[@bobo81b]

Nice video! I saw it in California - fewer clouds. I can't say I found it quite as exciting as a total eclipse, but it was an amazing sight anyhow.

[@CamiloSanchez1979]

That was amazing

[@HarryHydro]

Great questions..It seems to me a total eclipse would have the moon much closer and/or the sun farther.

[@bwxmoto]

Cool!Hey I have a qustion that's been bugging me. If the moon is close in it's orbit now, remember the ''super moon'' a couple weeks ago.. then why is it that the moon didn't cover up more of the sun? With a closer moon, why wasn't it a total eclipse? The only thing that makes sense is that we're closer to the sun in our elliptical orbit.. but we aren't, that happens on July 4th. So what gives? Guess I'll Google it.

[@filiplinhart9034]

an annular eclipse is less spectacular than a total eclipse, but "filtering" clouds or the eclipse occuring during sunset can make it magic

[@BillyBughead]

We didn't have it here in Chicago. We did, however, have several thousand angry protestors trashing the town due to the NATO summit, so I'm sure there was at least one hippy who decided to show the police a full moon.