Hybrid solar eclipse happens tonight with only a few occuring every century

Wednesday night, eastern time, features a rare event, a hybrid solar eclipse. Most won’t be able to view it in person, but its rarity is enough to pique interest.

The April new moon hits today and this sets up the first solar eclipse of 2023, where the moon comes between the Earth and sun. Those in Australia and Indonesia will be able to view a partial eclipse Thursday morning local time, with far western Australia and western Indonesia getting near 90 and 100 percent of the eclipse.

Hybrid eclipses only happen a few times in one century. They are a mixture of an annular eclipse and a total eclipse and are completely dependent on the placement of the moon’s two-part shadow and Earth’s curvature.

According to scientist Robert Lea, one of the moon’s shadows, called the penumbra, passes over a part of Earth in front of the sun, and only an annular eclipse is seen. Annular eclipses occur when the sun is still seen as a bright ring around the moon, noted as the “ring of fire.”

But once the moon passes over a different part of Earth where the curvature is different, the moon’s umbra shadow hits Earth, causing a total eclipse, where all the sun will be covered by the moon and only the corona shows, slightly darkening Earth’s surface for some time.

Having both an annular and a total eclipse occur during this eclipse makes this event a hybrid. The last time Earth experienced a hybrid solar eclipse was November 2013 and the next one won’t be until November 2031 over Central America.

If you plan on viewing the eclipse in person, be sure to have the proper eclipse-viewing glasses and never look directly at the sun – or the eclipse – with the naked eye. Be sure to check the WeatherRadar to make sure you have the perfect viewing conditions!