If the Sky Above You Should Turn Dark Quiz

Answer: Madagascar

This was the first total eclipse of the 21st century, experienced sequentially along a narrow strip of ocean and land in the southern Atlantic and the African countries of Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar. The partial eclipse zone, in which the Moon occluded part of the Sun, covered most of the African continent and a significant portion of South America. Totality lasted for nearly 5 minutes (4:57 min), and the time of centrality, when the two centres were exactly aligned, was 12:04:46 TT (Terrestrial Time, which is about 32 seconds ahead of UTC, the Coordinated Universal Time used for civilian time measurements for reasons I leave it to the interested to explore).

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, causing a shadow on the surface of the Earth. This happens around the time of a new moon, when the Moon and Sun are closest together when viewed from Earth. It does not happen every month because the Moon's orbit is tilted at an angle to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. This means that it sometimes seems that their paths cross, and other times they just come close.

Whether the Moon and Sun seem to cross also depends on where you are on the surface of the Earth, as you are looking at them from different angles. So even if some people see them perfectly aligned, there are others (relatively) nearby who will see only a partial overlap, which is called a partial eclipse.

Even if you are viewing events from a place where the centers of the Moon and Sun align perfectly, you may still not see a total eclipse. This is because the Moon's orbit is an ellipse, which means it is sometimes closer to the earth (and looks larger) than at other times. If it is close enough, it can cover the entire Sun for a few minutes - the closer it is to apogee, the longer the eclipse will last. At other times, a ring of the Sun remains visible around the outside of the Moon; this is called an annular eclipse.

Answer: Brazil

There was not a five-year gap between total eclipses, but the selection of ten from fifteen so as to get ten different countries from which to view them means that the total eclipses of 4 December 2002 and 23 November 2003 have been left out, along with the hybrid eclipse of 8 April 2005. A hybrid eclipse is one that is seen by some viewers as total, and by some as annular. They are relatively rare.

In selecting the country from which each eclipse could be seen, I consciously avoided the ones that seem to see the most, as a place where it is less common is more likely to be remembered. This eclipse started at sunrise in Brazil before moving across the Atlantic and crossing northern Africa (Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Libya, Egypt) and western Asia (Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, which it reached at sunset). The region of partiality covered all of Europe, as well as most of Africa and central Asia.

Answer: Mongolia

This eclipse occurred when the Moon was slightly further from the Earth than had been the case in 2001 - the Moon's diameter appeared 1.0394 times that of the Sun, compared to 1.0495. This means that it was shorter, lasting for 2 min 27 sec at its maximum (near the Russian town of Nadym). The path of totality started in Nunavut, then moved across Greenland, Russia, Mongolia and western China.

A German charter airline company organised an 11-hour flight for those who wanted to follow the eclipse along its path to extend the experience, combined with some aerial sightseeing round the North Pole.

Answer: Bhutan

This eclipse was the longest one of the 21st century and is predicted to be the longest one until one expected in July of 2186. Since astronomers have very good records of the orbits and rotation of all three bodies involved in eclipses, there is no reason to expect any differently. The theoretical maximum time for totality is 7 minutes and 32 seconds; this one lasted to 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds when viewed at the point of greatest eclipse. The closest land point was an uninhabited island (North Iwo Jima), and the closest inhabited point was the Japanese island of Akusekijima (reachable by ferry), where the eclipse was 6 seconds shorter.

Because the maximum totality occurred at sea, but near the coast, a charter cruise set off the view it by following the path of totality, so as to make it seem a bit longer for those on board - 6 min 42 sec.

While it is true that you could see this eclipse in the Himalayan country of Bhutan, that was far from the only spot, and this has been described as one of the most viewed eclipses in the 21st century, as literally billions of people lived in its path. The path of totality started in central Pakistan before moving across India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and some Japanese islands. Most of Asia experienced a partial eclipse of some magnitude.

Answer: southern Argentina

Because this was one of the most remote total eclipses on record (meaning that totality occurred well away from inhabited areas) and it took place at the same time as the FIFA World Cup Final (in which Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in Johannesburg SA), it was seen by very few people. Totality touched the very southernmost parts of Chile and Argentina after starting 750km south of Tonga before crossing the Pacific Ocean and touching on some uninhabited islands in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands and Easter Island. Partial eclipses could be seen from most of the Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii and along the western coast of South America.

Although French Polynesia did not experience totality, it was close enough (98%) that the famous diamond ring effect and Bailey's beads, both phenomena associated with a total solar eclipse, were visible in Tahiti. The final point of totality, in Argentina, arrived only minutes before sunset, so the sun was barely above the horizon.

Answer: northern Australia

This was another Pacific Ocean eclipse, which started over Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost parts of Australia, on 14 November local time, at 20:35:08 UTC (still the 13th). As it crossed the International Date Line, local time and UTC time agreed again that it was 13 November. Residents of Cairns saw about two minutes of totality shortly after sunrise; or would have, if the clouds had not gotten in the way. Most of the rest of totality occurred over the Pacific (aside from a few uninhabited islands), ending north of the Juan Fernández Islands. The sun set before the path hit the mainland of South America, but Chile and Argentina did have a partial eclipse just before sunset.

This was quite a southerly eclipse, with not even much partial eclipse reaching north of the equator, and significant parts of Antarctica having the chance to see an eclipse, starting at the Talos Dome and extending across most of Western Antarctica through to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Answer: northwest USA

The American media described this as "The Great American Eclipse", as the band of totality covered fourteen states, starting in the Pacific coast state of Oregon at 17:15 UTC (10:15am local time) and crossing out into the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina. This was the first total eclipse to travel across the entire country since 1918 - but another one with a similar path is expected in 2024, so a few places in the Midwest will have experienced two total eclipses in a seven-year period. A partial eclipse was seen in most of the rest of North America, and the northern parts of South America.

Viewing the eclipse of a cruise ship that could follow the sun's path and provide a slight extension to the tie of totality was becoming almost old hat, but this eclipse spiced it up a bit by offering those who could afford the experience the chance to see Bonnie Tyler performing her hit 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' as the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas entered the path of totality.

An issue that has become of increasing interest as the world's electricity supply is moving away from fossil fuel generation to an increased reliance on solar power was the question of the impact on solar electricity generation of the eclipse. Cooperation between companies with different locations, and planned use of back up technologies meant that the short-term drops in production did not lead to consumer supply disruption.

Answer: Oeno Island

Oeno Island is one of the four volcanic islands collectively called the Pitcairn Islands, famous as the place where the mutineers from the Bounty settled. As of 2020, the population of the group was 47, none of them living on Oeno Island, which was the only Pacific Island this eclipse crossed.

The next land to see a total eclipse was in Chile, where the European Southern Observatory was in the path of totality; people paid up to $2000 for the chance to use their telescopes to view the eclipse. The eclipse finished over Argentina, when sunset intervened.

Answer: southern Chile

The path of totality for this eclipse started in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean, moving eastwards until it hit Chile in the commune of Puerto Saavedra, crossed Argentina's Patagonia region, and continued across the Atlantic Ocean, finishing just off the coast of southern Africa. The point of maximum eclipse occurred at a location in the Nueve de Julio Department, Río Negro Province, Argentina.

The Amateur Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), a project that encourages amateur radio operators to use their radios to collect scientific data, especially in relation to the ionosphere, used this eclipse as a massive data collection effort which it billed as an Eclipse Festival of Frequency Measurement. Their first collection of Doppler shift data was made in the 2017 eclipse, which allowed them to develop a protocol to ensure comparability of data. The project is planned to continue whenever a total solar eclipse passes regions of significant population.

Answer: Antarctica

This eclipse had an unusual feature - the path moved from east to west, not west to east. This can only happen for eclipses near the poles, and this one was located almost completely over Antarctica. Totality started in the south Atlantic Ocean, then moved south to achieve maximum totality just before hitting the coast of West Antarctica.

Sites that predict the best spot to see an upcoming eclipse based on local weather conditions reported that skies were clear for virtually the entire route of totality. Nevertheless, not many people witnessed it! Partial eclipses were seen in South Africa and the Australian state of Victoria.