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Coming off the excitement of the Great North American Solar Eclipse last April, many have wondered when the next solar eclipse will take place. The answer to that question is Tuesday, October 2nd, when an annular eclipse takes place.
This is the type of solar eclipse where the moon is a little too far from Earth to completely cover the sun, leaving a ring of sunlight shining around the moon’s silhouette; think of it as a “penny on a nickel effect” with the penny representing the moon and the nickel the sun.
You can remember that last year, on October 14 just such an eclipse swept across parts of the western and southern United States, as well as the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Central America, southern Colombia and northern Brazil . Millions of people living within the path of the annihilation were able to watch (weather conditions permitting) as the sun transformed into a spectacular “ring of fire” for more than 5 minutes.
But for this upcoming annular solar eclipse on October 2, things will be very different. Unlike last year, when the path of the annular phase of the eclipse passed over many accessible population centers, getting a view of this year’s solar ring will be a bit of a challenge.
That’s because 95 percent of the eclipse path will pass over open ocean waters.
Track over the Ocean
The path of the eclipse that produces this “ring of fire” effect will begin at local sunrise at a point over the mid-Pacific Ocean just north of the equator, about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southwest of Honolulu.
Shortly thereafter, the moon’s shadow will sweep first east, then southeast, across the equator and into the South Pacific Ocean, passing first north of the island nation of Kiribati, then northeast of French Polynesia and Islands Pitcairn. At the point of greatest eclipse, the annular phase will last for 7 minutes 24 seconds at a height of 69-degrees. Here, the eclipse path is 165 miles (265 km) wide.
Still, thousands of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the ringed sun will be drawn from perhaps one of the most isolated and remote spots on the face of the earth: the legendary and mysterious Easter Island.
Fortuitously located
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua, is a special territory of Chile. It is a wonderful open-air museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and much of the island is protected within the Rapa Nui National Park. Fortunately, it lies almost directly within the path of the Moon’s shadow on Sunday, giving locals and tourists alike the opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse.
The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen gave it the name “Easter Island” while searching for the island of Dáiví or Davis. Isla de Pascua is the official Spanish name of the island, is Spanish for “Easter Island.” It is 2,200 miles (3,600 km) west of mainland Chile and 1,290 miles (2,075 km) east of the Pitcairn Islands. Sala y Gómez, 260 miles (415 km) east, is closer but uninhabited. It is just south of Salt Lake City and just east of Brisbane, Australia; it is the easternmost and almost southernmost island of the South Pacific.
About 1,200 or 1,300 years ago a double canoe full of slain from a distant culture landed on Easter Island. Over the following centuries a remarkable society developed on its own on the island. For reasons still unknown they began to carve huge statues out of volcanic rock. These huge monuments, called “moai,” are some of the most incredible ancient remains ever discovered. At least 288 of these once stood on huge stone platforms called ahu. About 250 of these ahu terraces are about half a mile apart and form an almost unbroken line around the perimeter of the island.
Another 600 moai statues, in various stages of completion, are scattered across the island, in quarries or along ancient roads between the quarries and the coastal areas where the statues were often erected. The average statue is 14 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 14 tons. Depending on the size of the sculptures, it is estimated that between 50 and 150 people were needed to pull them across the countryside on sleds and rollers made from the trees of the island.
Almost 8,000 people live on this 64-square-mile (166-sq km) patch of hills and volcanoes. And yet, despite being the most remote inhabited island in the world, tourism is booming, going from 22,000 tourists in 2003 to 100,000 in 2024. And that number is likely to continue to grow. When Mataveri Airport opened in 1967, it was easy to travel to Easter Island from Chile and Tahiti. A Boeing 787 Dreamliner flies from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island six times a week. The flight takes about five hours.
As seen from Easter Island, the moon will begin to move across the sun’s disc at 11:23 local time and at 1:04 pm an off-center solar ring will form and continue for about 6 minutes and 5 seconds . When the annular phase ends, the moon will slowly move away from the sun’s disk with the last contact at 2:52 pm
No comparison to total eclipse
It should be remembered that although it is a very unusual phenomenon to see, an annular solar eclipse is not much less than the type of spectacle provided by a total eclipse.
During a total eclipse, the sky darkens considerably to something similar to that experienced 30 or 40 minutes before sunrise or after sunset. The brightest stars and planets suddenly appear. At the edge of the sky are exotic colors of orange and saffron and around the dark sun is the incredible corona or outer atmosphere of the sun. Only during this total time can you look directly into the sun without harming your eyes.
But that is not the case during an annular eclipse.
You will need to protect your eyes at all times, even during the ring of fire phase. During the solstice, about 87 percent of the total area of the sun’s disk will be obscured by the dark shadow of the moon. But the remaining 13 percent of the sun that remains in view will be bright enough to prevent seeing the corona, as well as any stars and planets. The overall illumination of the sky will become a little less, but certainly nothing like a dawn or dusk sky. In short, comparing a total eclipse to an annular eclipse is like comparing night and day.
The home stretch, and then the end
About 68 minutes later, the moon’s antumbral shadow (“negative shadow”) makes landfall in South America, taking 12 minutes to cross Patagonia, moving in from the Pacific Ocean over Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael in Chile and departure over the South Atlantic at Canada. Hour de Septiembre in Argentina. The path slides just north of the Falkland Islands and will leave the Earth’s surface north of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Where to see a partial solar eclipse
A partial solar eclipse will be visible at sunrise from the Hawaiian Islands, and during the evening hours over the southern two-thirds of South America. Listed below is a table giving the local times for the various phases of the eclipse as seen from Honolulu and seven selected South American cities. When dashes are given it shows that the sun is below the horizon. “Mag.” it represents the fraction of the sun’s diameter that the moon’s disk covers at maximum eclipse.
For example, from Honolulu, the maximum degree of the eclipse will occur at 6:45 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time. The size is .586, which means that the dark disk of the moon will reach 58.6% across the disk of the sun.
Once again it bears repeating: it is dangerous to look at the sun without proper eye protection. Even if you are in the path of the annular eclipse you will need to protect your eyes even during the “ring of fire” phase.
Tourist attraction
Ar March 29, 2025part of the sun will be visible across much of Europe, northwest Africa, Greenland, Iceland, Atlantic Canada and parts of New England.
The next total eclipse of the sun will take place on August 12, 2026 and it will sweep south and east through the east of Greenland, through the west of Iceland and through the north of Spain.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Free natural history magazine,the The Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.
