DtiNews shares extraordinary snapshots from the record longest solar eclipse in Vietnam with its readers.

January 15 marked witness to a solar eclipse of historic proportions. The obscuration was 71 percent in Hanoi, 50 percent in Da Nang and 38 percent in Ho Chi Minh City.

Despite cold and cloudy weather, the solar eclipse still could be noticed in Hanoi. A lot of young people gathered at My Dinh National Stadium to watch. (Photo by Mai Xuan Tung)

The Moon started covering the Sun. (Photo by Mai Xuan Tung)

“We could not watch the whole process of the solar eclipse because thick clouds covered the sun. Fortunately, we could see the strongest effects of 71 percent at 3:36PM. As predicted, the phenomena was finished at 5:05PM but because of darkness and thick clouds, it could only be noticed till 4PM. However, we are satisfied with the result,” said Truong Ngoc Khanh, member of the Hanoi Amateur Astronomy Society HAS.

(Photo by Mai Xuan Tung)

There were over 20 people from the Polytechnic Astronomy Club (PAC) gathered at the beach of Pham Van Dong, Da Nang, to observe the phenomena. “We made anti-ultraviolet ray glasses by ourselves for people to watch. The strongest effect in Da Nang was 50 percent 3:40PM. After that, we could not observe because the weather became dark quickly,” said Hien, Head of PAC.

Making efforts to get photos of the phenomena (Photo by Mai Xuan Tung)

There were over 300 people gathered at District 5 Children’s House to observe the event. People used 70 specific glasses made by the Amateur Astronomy Club of Ho Chi Minh City.

“The largest obscuration was 38 percent in Ho Chi Minh City at 5.40PM,” said Tuan Anh, Manager of Amateur Astronomy Club of Ho Chi Minh City.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction from Earth.

At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth. Two of them possibly being total eclipses. Total solar eclipses are rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon's umbra.

An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, 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 outline of the Moon.

Source:dtinews